The Wall Street Wire unveiled on Feb. 24 its list of 2006 "Top ten most influential Chinese economists", which included Qian Yingyi, Lang Xianping, Lin Yifu, Zou Hengfu, Wu Jinglian, Zhang Weiying, Li Daokui, Chen Zhiwu, Tian Guoqiang and Zhang Wuchang. It is the second list made by Wall Street Wire.

Except for Wu Jinglian, the rest nine are all graduates from prestigious European and American schools where they received systematic trainings on western economics.

The evaluation is based on indexes of academic influence (70 percent), economic influence (25 percent) and social influence (5 percent).

As is said, there are some 6,000 people in China who can be called "economists", but only around 100 of them are able to publish papers on international mainstream journals. At present, Chinese economists are still of very limited influence and say in world circles of economics and financial press, their opinions on the margin and their stance, views and methods rarely noticed.

By People's Daily Online