ABSTRACT
Introduction The most important development in the first decade of the twenty-first century in the People’s Republic of China (PRC, hereafter to be referred to as ‘China’), at least from the focal point of this chapter, has arguably been the return of a sufficient number of Western-trained economists to create a critical mass of Neoclassical economists. In 1998, China had significantly increased the ‘perks’ offered to returning Economics PhDs, such as salaries four times the normal scale at its universities (Chow, 2000: 57) and approval of joint positions that permitted professors to continue to teach at Western ones for significant portions of the year. This initiative is part of a broader continuing Chinese project to repatriate scientific and technical experts living abroad.2
