How has the Chinese economic system been transformed? The leaders' point of view

Seminar Has a Chinese model of development been existing for the last four decades? hosted by Lun Zhang, Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, Paris.

Speaker: Weiying ZHANG

Weiying ZHANG is currently Sinar Mas Chair Professor of Economics at the National School of Development, Peking University, China. He was born in 1959 in Shaanxi Province, and received undergraduate and graduate training in economics from the Northwest University (China). His radical ideas for price reform presented at the Mount Mogan Conference landed him a position at the Economic System Reform Institute in 1984. In 1990, he attended Oxford University and obtained his D.Phil. in Economics in 1994. Then he co-founded China Center for Economic Research (CCER) of Peking University.

Since 1994, Professor Zhang has taught economics at Peking University. He served as the Dean of the Guanghua School of Management between 2006 and 2010. He moved back to National School of Development (formerly named CCER) in July 2014. He has been the Chief Economist for the China Entrepreneurs Forum since 2001.

Professor Zhang is widely regarded as the leading advocate of the free market in China as well as an authority on the theory of the firm and ownership reform.  His insightful and provocative opinions about China’s reforms have been widely reported both in Chinese and international media. The Wall Street Journal called him “China’s Anti-Keynesian Insurgent.” He has received several prestigious awards in China. In 2011, he was awarded the China Economic Theory Innovation Award for his pioneering contribution to the dual-track price reform.

Weiying Zhang has published variety of books and academic papers. His recent English books include: the Logic of the Market: An Insider’s View of Chinese Economic Reform (Cato Institute, 2015; on the finalist of Hayek Prize in 2016 and 2017); The Road Leading to the Market (Routledge, 2016); The Origin of the Capitalist Firm: An Entrepreneurial/Contractual Theory of the Firm (Springer, 2017).