Justin Yifu Lin

Justin Yifu Lin (Chinese: 林毅夫; pinyin: Lín Yìfū; born on October 15, 1952) is a Taiwanese-born Chinese economist and professor of economics at Peking University. He served as the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank from 2008 to 2012. He has been appointed as China's State Council Counsellor since September 2013.

Born in Yilan County of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Lin was a ground force captain and company commander of the Republic of China Army on the Kinmen Islands, where he swam across the channel and sought refuge in Xiamen of the People's Republic of China in May 1979. After settling in mainland China, Lin became an economist after graduating from Peking University and earning a PhD from the University of Chicago, where he studied under Nobel Prize laureate Theodore Schultz.

After completing his postdoctoral studies at Yale University, he returned to Beijing and became a professor of economics at Peking University in 1987. He founded the China Center for Economic Research (currently the Peking University National School of Development) and was later appointed Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank where he served from 2008 to 2012. After that, he returned to Beijing and to his research at Peking University.

His main academic theory is called New Structural Economics. At Peking University, he currently serves as the Dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics, the Honorary Dean of the National Development Institute, and the Dean of the Institute of South-South Cooperation and Development.