Liu Yu

Liu Yu (born 24 December 1975) is a Chinese writer and political scientist. She is a professor of political science at Tsinghua University in Beijing. A prominent spokeswoman for Chinese liberalism, Liu's book Details of Democracy, an introduction of the workings of American democracy to a Chinese audience, was acclaimed as a creative and well-written cornerstone of the ideological movement. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in political science from Renmin University of China in Beijing's Haidian District in 1996 and 1999 respectively. From 2000 to 2007, she lived in the United States, where she attained a PhD in political science from Columbia University and was a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University in the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.

Breakthrough and academic career In 2009, Liu published Details of Democracy, a collection of essays originally written for her blog on the subject of American democracy. The book aspired to introduce the daily mechanisms of democracy to a Chinese audience, explaining processes from a relatable position of stories and anecdotes, rather than jargon. Details of Democracy became a bestseller and made Liu famous, gaining her a reputation as "China's de Tocqueville". She cultivated a reputation as "one of China's best-known America-watchers" and became a popular public speaker as one of the faces of Chinese liberalism. Contrary to her expectations, China grew more authoritarian over the 2010s; this had consequences for Liu's career, as the increased repression of liberal voices impeded her ability to land speaking roles or teach her positions. She told Ian Johnson that this was a chilling effect of government censorship, but that it should not be interpreted as the failure of the "Internet Spring" entirely, and that the full consequences of China's 2000s liberalism were yet to be seen. published a criticism of Liu's academic career on the nationalist news site Guancha. Xu accused Liu of having few peer-reviewed publications and of being less academically accomplished than expected for Tsinghua faculty, or indeed for Tsinghua graduate students. Liu responded by arguing that Xu's assessment of her papers was out of date, and that he was overapplying publication counts expected in other fields to her own; she also stated that while her publication count was relatively low for tenure-track faculty, it was understandable in the context that she also blogged, taught a high teaching load, and moved across three continents in six years. Liu and her husband also criticised Xu for insinuating that Liu had misrepresented her tenure-track lecturing position at Cambridge, which he denied.

In 2023, Liu's book Day Two: Gains, Losses, and Choices of New Democracy (巨变第二天; jubian di er tian) was published by the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. The couple have a daughter.

Selected publications

Articles Liu Yu (2020), "" , , vol. 10 Liu Yu (2018), "" , , vol. 6 Liu Yu (2017), "Lessons of new democracies for China", Journal of Chinese Political Science, vol. 98, no. 3 Liu Yu (2017), "" , , vol. 2 Liu Yu (2017), "Is there a tradeoff between democratization and stability?", Social Science Quarterly, vol. 98, no. 5 Liu Yu (2016), "The state with a surname", Journal of Chinese Governance, vol. 1, no. 3

Books Liu Yu (2013), , Zhejiang University Press, Liu Yu (2009), , , Liu Yu (2023), 巨变第二天 (Day Two: Gains, Losses, and Choices of New Democracy), Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, ISBN 978-988-237-296-2