Maochun Yu

'Miles Maochun Yu is an American historian and strategist who served as the principal China policy and planning adviser to former United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Yu is a professor of military history and modern China at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and an Adjunct Professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is also a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he directs the China Center, a senior fellow at the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security (IIPS), and a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Yu wrote for "Inside China", the weekly column of The Washington Times'', for several years, and currently the weekly column "Red Horizon" ,also for the Washington Times. He is the host of the weekly podcast "China Insider" at Hudson Institute. He has also hosted the "China Forum" lecture series. At the Hoover Institution, he is a member and contributor of the Military History and Contemporary Conflict Working Group.

Early life and education Yu was born in China's Anhui province and grew up in Chongqing. He was inspired by President Ronald Reagan, whose speeches Yu heard on Voice of America broadcasts, to move to the United States. In 1985, he moved to Pennsylvania to study at Swarthmore College. Under Pompeo, Yu worked with Kelley Eckels Currie, Mung Chiang, and David Stilwell to shape America's foreign policy toward China.

On December 23, 2022, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that Yu, along with Todd Stein of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, would be subject to sanctions taking effect the same day, including a freezing of all Chinese assets of the two, and an entry ban including their family members. The order specified that the measures were in retaliation to the sanctioning of former secretary Wu Yingjie of the Tibet Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and Tibet police chief Zhang Hongbo by the United States earlier that month over alleged human rights violations, but made no specific accusations against Yu. Yu responded by calling the sanctions on him "a badge of honor" and a publicity stunt by the Chinese government.