Fengbo Zhang

Fengbo Zhang (; born 1957) is a leading Chinese economist. He has been advising the highest level of Chinese leadership in policy-making since the 1980s. As the first citizen of the People's Republic of China to receive a Ph.D. in economics from an overseas country, Dr. Fengbo Zhang introduced Western Economics to China for top economic decision-making. ,,
History
During the Cultural Revolution in China, upon graduation from High School, he was forced to work in an impoverished village as a farmer. He studied at night after long days of physical labor. After graduating from Shanghai International Studies University, he passed the extremely competitive examination and received the honor of becoming the youngest researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1980.
He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Kyoto University in Japan, as the first PRC citizen to receive a Ph.D. in economics from overseas. In 1986, he was a Senior Research Fellow as well as the Founder and Head of the Chinese Macroeconomic Research Group at the State Council of the People's Republic of China Research Center. "Dr. Zhang was assigned to the State Council Research Center which provided the theoretical basis for the Chinese Premier to make policies".(China Daily, ). He helped the Deng Xiaoping leadership in promoting reform and open policy. He introduced Western economics to China and headed major national economic research projects, including the Chinese Macroeconomic Research - the key research project of the seventh Five-Year Plan of China, led by Dr. Zhang, participated by hundreds of scholars from the Central Government Ministries, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and leading Universities of China. He provided methods and theory for Chinese leadership promoting economic reform and decision-making, educated new government and business leaders.
In 1988, he was a visiting scholar at Harvard University and the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States. In 1989, he was the Chief Economist of Takenaka Corporation USA, and Secretary and Treasurer of the Nippon Club Tower - the largest Japanese overseas center, representing leading Japanese companies during the rapid investment boom in the USA, including investments to Rockefeller Center, Hollywood / Columbia Pictures. In 1994, he was Chief Economist and Senior Manager of ORIX Asian Headquarters, in charge of investment banking business to China. In 1996, he joined Fuji Bank NY Headquarters, as the Chief Financial Analyst and Senior Manager in charge of corporate finance to world leading Companies, including Toyota, Sony, Nomura Securities, Mitsui, Mitsubishi - all top companies in each industry. He also weathered the 1997 Asian financial crisis and directly handled Yamaichi Securities, Crown Leasing and Japan Leasing - the 3 biggest companies in the world that declared bankruptcy. He also experienced . In 2003, he joined Citigroup as a Senior Vice President for Citibank Lending, with continued success, and was awarded the CitiStar - Citibank NA's highest honor, during the Financial Crisis in 2008 and 2009.
He has published more than 10 books, including Analysis of Chinese Macroeconomy, and regularly speaks to Chinese government and business leaders.
The founder of and Macroeconomic Research
In 1985, the State Council of China approved to establish a SNA (System of National Accounting), use the GDP to measure the national economy. China started the study of theoretical foundation, guiding, and accounting model for establishing a new system of national economic accounting. In 1986, Dr. Fengbo Zhang headed Chinese Macroeconomic Research - the key research project of the seventh Five-Year Plan of China, as well as completing and publishing the China GDP data by China's own research. The summary of the above has been included in the book "Chinese Macroeconomic Structure and Policy"(June 1988) edited by Fengbo Zhang, and collectively authored by the Research Center of the State Council of China. This is the first GDP data which was published by China. The research utilized the World Bank’s method as a reference, and made the numerous appropriate adjustments based on China’s national condition. The GDP also has been converted to USD based data by utilizing the moving averageexchange rate. The research systematically completed China’s GDP and GDP per capita from 1952 to 1986 and analyzed growth rate, the change and contribution rates of each component. The research also included international comparisons. Additionally, the research compared MPS (Material Product System) and SNA (System of National Accounting), looking at the results from the two systems from analyzing Chinese economy. This achievement created the foundation for China's GDP research. The State Council of China issued “The notice regarding implementation of System of National Accounting” in August 1992, the Western SNA system officially is introduced to China, replaced Soviet Union's MPS system, Western economic indicator GDP became China’s most important economic indicator. Based on Dr. Fengbo Zhang's research, in 1997, the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in collaboration with Hitotsubashi University of Japan, re-estimated China’s GDP Data from 1952 upto 1995 based on the SNA principal.
When comparing Fengbo Zhang’s GDP measurement in the 1980s and the GDP in 1997 by the National Bureau of Statistics of China and Japan’s cooperative research, the two are found to be very consistent; the deviation rate each year is very slight, between only 0.1% and 7%. During this period, there were many data adjustments, with weighting factors undergoing significant changes along with each years comparable price amendments, statistical method significant changes result in the substantial deviation. Even with science and technology as advanced as it is today, the single item survey is allowed at least +-3%, or a total of 6% deviation. Despite the extremely difficult conditions of a destroyed economy, blank theory, a lack of data, and simple methods in 1980s, there is so little deviation for such a long period of time and the comprehensiveness of the national economic indicator, indicates that the research conducted by Fengbo Zhang with the support of the extensive group he trained is extremely rigorous, and their result very precise. (www.people.com.cn).
Fengbo Zhang’s achievement comprehensively covered China’s macroeconomy. He published more than 10 books and hundreds of reports and research papers; however, the GDP-related contents comprise only 9 pages (Chapter 2, Section 1 in the book “Chinese Macroeconomic Structure and Policy”). At early stage of China’s reform, as the forerunner of Chinese Economists, he removed himself from the traditional Chinese political economics, but he also did not attach himself solely to Western economic theory. Instead, he incorporated the essence of both theories and focused his research on the newest achievements of economic structure and policies of various countries. Basing it on comprehensive research of Chinese economic structure, operation law, and policy, he created a completely new Chinese macroeconomic analysis theory and method, unique for its usage of personal computing technology, forming a significant feature of Chinese Economics, especially economic policy research.
Sources: [http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BDGDP WikiChina: China GDP],
Wiki.answers.com , YAHOO!ANSWERS , Wiki-Answers China, Yahoo-Answers Chinese , Google-Answers China , China.com,
Xinhua News
Published books
*Analysis of Chinese Macroeconomy This book was published by People's Publishing House, the top publisher in China and [http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%AE%8F%E8%A7%82%E7%BB%8F%E6%B5%8E%E5%88%86%E6%9E%90 the First Place Prize winner of the Chinese National Book Award in 1987], and also was published in English and Japanese.
*A Chinese Economist's Journey
*Economic Analysis of Chinese Transportation
*PC and Economic Analysis , China, 1986 OCLC 44814225 In this book, he introduced Econometrics for Chinese Macroeconomic analysis, including Mathematics methods, computer programming technical and extensive Chinese economic data and cases.
*Chinese Macroeconomic Structure and Policy Editor: Fengbo Zhang, collectively authored by the Research Center of the State Council of China, winner of the Chinese National Book Award in 1988.
*Chinese Economic Operation and Control Editor: Fengbo Zhang. A collaborative effort of hundreds, with 36 authors from the Central Government Ministries, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and leading Universities of China. It's a project of National Natural Science Foundation of China headed by Dr. Zhang
*Books in Engilish, Chinese and Japanese
Notable Quotes
Fengbo Zhang’s numerous statements have significantly influenced China’s top policy-making since the 1980s, including the following famous adages:
*“Do not focus on the political left or the political right - focus on the economy.”
*“In the race for economic development, time should not be wasted on debating Socialism or Capitalism.”
*“Economic research requires a huge investment in manpower and financial resources. Thus, the standard for evaluating achievement in economic research should be the production of significant social benefits and the desired economic effect.”
*“Hu Yaobang is good, Zhao Ziyang is good; Deng Xiaoping is the best.”
Sources: [http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E5%BC%A0%E9%A3%8E%E6%B3%A2 WikiChina1], , Sinovision.net,
Opinion on Financial Crisis
*Perspective on the United States Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis
*Accurately Forecasting Trends of the Financial Crisis
*Stop Arguing about Socialism versus Capitalism

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