林毅夫的长征

Lin's long swim

林毅夫的长征

An economist with an unusual past

一个有着不寻常过去的经济学家

THIRTY years ago China's leaders used to call the World Bank a tool of imperialism. Now China is one of the bank's top borrowers, and in December it became a donor, on a small scale.

30年前，中国还管世界银行叫做帝国主义的工具，但现在中国已经是世界银行最大的借款人之一，而就在十二月，中国为世行做了一点贡献，当然，规模不大。

China may soon make a big contribution to the bank's intellectual ranks. According to whispers at the institution, its new chief economist will be a Chinese citizen. Justin Yifu Lin is the director of the China Centre for Economic Research at Peking University. He has twice won his country's top economic honour, the Sun Yefang award, and he has published in the leading journal of his profession, the American Economic Review. But this brilliant record masks an unlikely past. He was born not in China but in Taiwan. He defected to the mainland after serving in the Taiwanese armed forces.

中国将很快为世行的智囊团做出一个重大贡献。根据世行的声明，一名中国人将成为这家机构的新任首席经济学家。林毅夫是北京大学中国经济研究中心的主任，曾两次赢得中国的最高经济学奖——孙冶方奖，并曾在《美国经济研究》——这本他的研究领域内的主导刊物上发表文章。不过，这份闪光的简历上却有一个令人意外的过去。林毅夫并非在中国大陆出生，他是一位台湾人。他是在台湾服兵役期间逃到了大陆的。

After earning a master's degree in political economy from Peking University, at a time when it was still steeped in Marxism, he earned an economics doctorate from the University of Chicago, where the market reigns. So his intellectual portfolio is perfectly hedged. That will serve him well in his new post. His adopted land has become an inspiration to many poor countries, especially in Africa. Their policymakers argue that China's path to prosperity defies and discredits the simple formulas propagated in Washington.

在马克思主义盛行的中国，林毅夫于北京大学获得了政治经济学的硕士学位，而后他在市场主义主导的芝加哥大学获得了经济学博士学位。所以他可谓是将这两者很好地融合起来，这对他的新工作很有帮助。他投奔的这个国家已经成为许多穷国特别是非洲穷国们的精神领袖。这些国家的政策制定者们认为，中国走向繁荣的道路正好与华盛顿宣扬的法则相反。

Mr Lin is a student of China's economic reforms. But his scholarship, like his past, straddles ideological gaps. He believes governments go wrong when they defy the law of comparative advantage, promoting heavy industries in countries where capital is scarce and labour abundant. The government's first duty, he argues, is “to remove all possible obstacles for the function of free, open and competitive markets”. Spoken like a Chicago man.

林先生是中国经济改革的学生，但就像他的过去一样，他的学问横跨意识形态的沟壑。他认为政府忽视比较优势，将重工业引入一个没有足够资本和劳动力的国家是错误的。他认为，政府的首要职能是为自由、公开和竞争的市场移除所有可能的障碍。这话听起来确实像一个芝加哥学派该说的。

But Mr Lin also says government has a second duty. As an economy develops, the state should coax firms into more sophisticated industries. This prodding may be needed for several reasons. To cite one: firms may not know which industries are viable, and which are not. So the government should subsidise pioneers who break a path for others.

但林先生同时也认为，政府还拥有第二职能，即随着经济发展，政府应引领企业产业升级，迈向更成熟的工业。原因之一即，企业可能并不知道哪个工业更好，这需要政府帮助那些领先的企业开辟出一条示范的道路出来。

Washington's financial institutions were once notorious for their dogmatic prescriptions. Now they prefer piecemeal reforms and eclectic advice. That is a tide Mr Lin can probably swim with.

华盛顿的金融机构曾经因为其教条的规定而声名狼藉，而现在他们更喜欢渐进的改革和折中的建议，林先生需要在这股潮流中激流勇进。