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March 2022
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An Unexpected Reward22/10/2021 Last year, I wrote a few articles about Taiwan, boldly making various predictions and suggestions, and sharing them with a small circle of friends self styled as China Writers Group. At the same time, I did send the articles to a few venues which I thought might be interested. Rather unexpectedly, I received a response from Professor Justin Yifu Lin (林毅夫), who is the Dean of several institutes and the professor of the National School of Development at Peking University. Since not everyone knows who Lin Yifu is, here is a short introduction. Professor Lin was originally from Taiwan. He was a model ROC military officer and was posted to Kinmen (or Jinmen 金门) off the coast of Fujian in the late seventies. In May 1979, Lin was reported missing and was presumed dead. In fact, Lin had jumped into the sea and swum about two kilometers in the dark to the mainland. At that time, China's per capita income was lower than that of people from sub-Saharan Africa. Lin decided to help the Chinese people improve that situation. Even in those early days of China's reform, only a few months after the US and China established official diplomatic relations, Lin already could see far into the future. He held the conviction that Taiwan's reunification with the mainland was inevitable. He wanted to contribute to the Chinese renaissance rather than to engage in counter-productive internecine strife. He could not tell his wife, who was pregnant at the time and looking after their young child at home. He also had to risk his life, as there was no guarantee he would not drown or he would not be caught. Lin crossed over safely and became a private citizen in China. At first, his story was kept a secret and few people knew his background. He got his Masters Degree in Economics from Peking University, and after getting a recommendation from Professor Theodore Schutz, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, went on to obtain his doctorate from the University of Chicago, the breeding ground of Nobel Laureates in Economics. Lin was in fact one of the first Chinese citizens of the PRC to receive a PhD at the university. Lin's wife and children joined him in Chicago, and the family later settled in Beijing. In 2008, Lin was appointed Chief Economist and Vice President of the World Bank for a four year term. That was the highest position any Chinese citizen had held in such an influential international organization. Professor Lin is also one of the most prolific contributors of academic papers on economics coming from China. He no doubt sits on economic consultative committees for the Chinese leadership. I've seen public photos of him in such committee meetings with Chinese president Xi Jinping. Since making this connection with Professor Lin, I have kept up a rather lively correspondence with him for the past year. He has actually sent some of his translated articles and speeches to me that I have helped with a bit of editing without having been asked to do so. I explain apologetically to the professor that as a writer for the last few years, it has become a habit. Prof. Lin good-humoredly approves. A couple of weeks ago, I saw an article by David Goldman (Deputy Editor, well known financial analyst and political pundit Spengler) on Asia Times, titled "China Marches on Towards Fourth Industrial Revolution" quoting heavily from Justin Yifu Lin. It turns out that the professor has recently published another book, and his publisher is probably getting some exposure for it. An excerpt for his book Justin Yifu Lin on China's Economy appeared several days later. I promptly and dutifully reported the sightings to the Prof. One week later, this was what I got in the mail. Pretty cool, wouldn't you say?
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Max Wei
22/10/2021 10:10:35 pm
That’s great! Congratulations!!!
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