Justin Yifu Lin

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"Justin Lin" redirects here. For the director, see Justin Lin (director).

Justin Yifu Lin (林毅夫) is a Chinese economist, who is Founder and Director of the China Center for Economic Research, Professor of Economics at Peking University, and at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He received the PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1986.

He was born on Oct 15, 1952, in Taiwan, the Republic of China. As an up and coming Captain in the ROC army (the Army had already paid for his MBA), he defected to Chinese mainland in the early 1979, reportedly by swimming from the island of Kinmen in Fujian Province of ROC, to the nearby island of Xiamen in Fujian, the same Province but of PRC.

While as an officer in the Republic of China Army, Lin was held up as a model soldier for choosing to be in the Army. Lin was considered as a "superstar" officer. The ROC never acknowledged his defection, listing him as missing.

He was one of the first PRC citizens to receive a PhD in economics from a US university, and is a leading Chinese economist. He serves as a consultant to the World Bank, among other major international organizations, and is on the editorial board of several international academic economics journals.