Larry Hsien Ping Lang

Personal background

Lang was born in 1956 in Taoyuan County, Taiwan (now Taoyuan City), and his ancestors are from Weifang, Shandong。

Education

Lang received his bachelor's degree from Tunghai University in 1978, and his master's degree from National Taiwan University in 1980. He then studied at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a master's degree and a PhD in Finance.

Lang was a lecturer at Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Michigan State University, Ohio State University, New York University Stern School of Business and The University of Chicago. Lang was also Chair Professor of Finance, the Faculty of Business Administration, at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Career and professional ethics

1994: Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

1996–2000: Consultant on Corporate governance Projects for World Bank, Washington, D.C.

1998–2001: Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and the Financial Services Bureau of the Hong Kong Government. He researched corporate governance and protection of the interests of small shareholders.

2004: Joint-appointed professor of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in mainland China.

August 2004: Host of a finance talk show Cáijīng Láng Xiánpáng (财经郎闲评, literally "Finance Lang Leisure Talk") on Shanghai Television

Early 2006: Cáijīng Láng Xiánpáng suspended due to Lang's intention to uncover the Shanghai pension scandal on the show.

June 2009: Lang made a comeback to host Larry's Eyes on Finance (Chinese: 财经郎眼; pinyin: Cáijīng Láng Yǎn), a news commentary talk show.

Controversy

Much of the controversy surrounding Lang can be attributed to his criticism on rightwing capitalism and the failing financial system. For example, Lang openly announced his endorsement of Marx's critical analysis on capitalism, positively reviewed Mao Zedong's role in China's earlier development and pointed out the often negative role US played in global economy and financial world.

Major public events

Main theories on public media

Lang has repeatedly stated in public that, regarding Macroeconomics, he believes in Karl Marx's Scientific communism and “Economic Crisis: Inevitable under Capitalism” theory. He thinks that Big government can bring more justice and welfare to the society than Minarchism, which condones violations on the interests of small shareholders by financial capital, and eventually leading to financial crisis. That is why he is sometimes called a New Left academic.

Dual-sector model

China's globalization crisis

For China 's globalization remained relatively "critical " attitude. His main idea is that many Chinese enterprises and local governments do not understand the international nature, or in his words, " farmland through water not previously dug ditches ." For example, "foreign" stock market operations through the acquisition of a cheap price or a lot of state-owned assets, causing increasingly serious loss of assets, as well as international [ [ chain ] ] the division of labor .

Lang believes that the existence of financial speculators internationally, such as George Soros of Quantum Group of Fund, these speculators are foreign exchange parity, commodities, precious metals prices from fluctuations in the main promoters, and Lang believes that behind them there is a long-term support of the world's financial powers, so meaningful, " financial war" , the rise and fall of these financial war against a country plays a key role, he and "Currency Wars", author Song Hongbing along with as "conspiracy theorists."

The face of the increasing appreciation of international oil prices in 2008, prices of food and some money, Lang pointed out that it is likely to be a behind by the " international financial speculators " under the control of a situation. The Chinese part of the industry, such as the steel industry is severely affected.

Enterprise strategy

Lang repeatedly points to South Korean enterprises as a model, and criticizes many of China's emerging enterprises. He advocates studying the practices of transnational corporations, of cutting process flow in enterprises where enterprises no longer tangled in one or two leadership capacity, maintaining long-term business, but also full of innovation.

Reactions in the Chinese business community

Reactions among Chinese economists

Among circles of Chinese economists, the prevailing opinion is that Lang's area of expertise does not cover China's economic system: he lacks a true understanding of China's situation, and his views on the restructuring of state enterprises are mostly shunned by his peers. Initially, key economists remained silent, but then they realized that Lang seemed to be on the way to affect China's fundamental national policies. So, they began to criticize his theories to try to turn the tide. Besides academic criticisms, there were also accusations of "grandstanding" and "fishing for fame." Nevertheless, it would appear that their attempts in turning the tide were basically futile.

Reactions of relevant departments in the Chinese government

Since the Lang–Gu dispute, ...

Commentaries from Chinese activist private scholars

Lang is often thought of as a New Left academic, but he calls himself a capitalist economist. ...

Selected books for general audiences

Selected journal articles