ZHANG Weiying

Sinar Mas Chair Professor of Economics at the National School of Development, Peking University

Weiying Zhang is currently Sinar Mas Chair Professor of Economics at the National School of Development, Peking University. 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. He co-founded China Center for Economic Research (CCER) of Peking University. Since 1997, Professor Zhang has taught economics at Peking University, and was the Dean of the Guanghua School of Management between 2006 and 2010.  He moved from Guanghua School of 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 received the China Economic Theory Innovation Award for his pioneering contribution to the dual-track price reform.