« How are libertarians different from social democrats? | Main | Investment tax credit as fiscal stimulus »
The Dialectic at Work?
Justin Yifu Lin, apparently soon to be named the World Bank's chief economist, has one of the strangest CVs you could imagine. Lin was born in Taiwan but in 1979 while serving in the Taiwanese army he defected to China by swimming from the island of Kinmen in Taiwan to Xiamen in China. Embarrassed by the defection of a rising star, the Taiwanese army listed him as missing. Lin left behind a wife and children who (it seems) didn't know what had happened to him.
Lin rose quickly in China receiving a Master's degree in Marxist political economy from Peking University in 1982 and in 1986 a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago (!). According to the Taipei Times, Lin's wife learned that Lin was alive while he was in the United States and they were reunited in the U.S. where she also earned a graduate degree before both returned to China. Lin has since become a well-published economist.
I see movie.
Addendum: Tyler also covers this further below.
Posted by Alex Tabarrok on January 21, 2008 at 07:10 AM in Travels | Permalink
Comments
Professor Lin wrote his thesis under the supervision of the late Dale G Johnson.
Posted by: Gary Shiu at Jan 21, 2008 9:04:56 AM
Man, nice timing. Pre-1979, it would have been suicide to defect from Taiwan to China. But 1979? The start of Deng's reforms? Wow!
Posted by: Buzzcut at Jan 21, 2008 9:28:01 AM
I am honestly curious about his motives. What combination of political beliefs (and changes therein) would inspire you to "defect" to China in 1979, get a PhD from Chicago in economics (double !) in 1983-1986 and then return to China, and then accept a position as the chief economist at the World bank in 2008?
That's got to be a good story.
Posted by: Brian Moore at Jan 21, 2008 10:18:41 AM
While I have nothing but best wishes to Lin and the IMF, this story just doesn't pass the smell test. He defects and China says nothing? Normally, they would have broadcast this high level and dramatic of defection all over the world. His wife didn't know he was alive until 7 years later when a friend happened to mention he was in the United States? Oh, please. That's complete bullshit. We're supposed to believe that he couldn't be bothered to let her know but they were happily reunited when she goes looking for him 7 years later? Yeah, right.
As I said, I wish Justin Lin well in his new job. And the IMF, as well, but I wouldn't trust Justin Lin, or his wife for that matter, for a second or a New York minute, with my unopened mail or to feed my pets in my absence. Nothing about their politics - everything about the characters.
Posted by: Randy at Jan 21, 2008 3:25:20 PM
Nice person! He left his wife and kid for years just to study...
Posted by: Kron at Jan 21, 2008 3:42:22 PM
Lin YiFu, or Justin if he prefers that, is clearly an independent-minded economist of quality. As an old bureaucrat, may I say "Wow! has he got the measure of bureaucracy"; and he has shown that he is prepared to do anything that is necessary to cope with the problems bureaucracy can place in humanity's way. He should do the World Bank a world of good. Thereafter he looks like the sort of man who might catalyse worthwhile long-term changes in the bureaucracy (suceessor to the old-time mandarins) which is the current Communist Party of China.
Posted by: Diversity at Jan 22, 2008 6:51:33 AM
