Dr. Pu Shan was born in November 1923 in Beijing. His ancestral home is Wuxi in Jiangsu Province.
Dr. Pu graduated from Department of Economics of Michigan State University in 1943.
Dr. Pu joined the Communist Party of United States of America in 1945 and later became a member of Chinese Communist Party.
Dr. Pu received a PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 1949. He studied with renowned economist Joseph Schumpeter.
Dr. Pu’s doctoral thesis Impacts of Technological Advances on Employment combined Schumpeter’s theory of technological innovation with Keynes'theory of the determination of income. Mr. Pu created a macro-economic model that includes key issues of endogenous technological change, totaling and expectations that had been developed in later economic literatures. This was highly praised by the academia.
Schumpeter fought to persuade Mr. Pu Shan to stay in the US to further the study on his theory, however, Mr. Pu refused and resolutely returned to China with a sense of mission.
From 1949-1957, Mr. Pu worked in the Intelligence Department and Policy Research of Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the Korean War from 1951-1953, Mr. Pu joined the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army’s North Korea truce talks delegation and played a key role.
From 1954-1957, Mr. Pu Shan became English Secretary to Premier Zhou Enlai and accompanied Premier Zhou in various diplomatic activities including the Geneva Conference in 1954, Bandung Conference in 1955, and Premier Zhou’s visits of 11 countries between 1956-1957.
From 1973 to 1982, Mr. Pu Shan worked at the Institute of International Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was vice dean of the institute.
Mr. Pu was head of Ministry of Finance’s delegation to the World Bank in 1983. He led the negotiations to restore China’s membership in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
From 1982 to 1988, Mr. Pu Shan was Director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
From 1985 to 1997, Mr. Pu was Chairman of Chinese Society of World Economics.
Mr. Pu Shan was a member of the seventh national committee of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPCCC), and a standing committee member of the eighth national committee of CPCCC.
Mr. Pu Shan died in February, 2003 at the age of 79 in Beijing.