Yu Maochun, who was born in China and lived through the Cultural Revolution, has served for the past few years as the chief China Policy advisor to former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an anti-China general in the Trump administration. The Chinese face has gone from being a foreign student to a central staffer to the Secretary of State, making the outside world curious.
Yu Maochun, 58, was born in Anhui Province, China, and was a top student in the college entrance examination (college entrance exam). He came to the United States in 1985 to pursue his master’s and doctoral degrees and then settled there, and taught at the U.S. Naval Academy for many years. In an interview with the Central News Agency today, he shared his reasons for deciding to study in the U.S. and how his view of China was influenced by his personal Life experiences.
Yu Maochun said that when he studied liberal arts, his main concern was the vision and informational issues, and he could study American issues in the United States, and it was convenient to obtain information and academic freedom, while back then in China, university graduates were assigned jobs by the government, and the monopoly of state power over individual rights could be felt all the Time, so he decided to go far to the United States for further studies.
He said that after arriving in the U.S., it was entirely by personal choice, and he learned a lot with the freedom to choose, so of course he had a comparison and contrast in his mind. He said that thousands of Chinese students who come to the U.S. have this feeling.
Before coming to the United States, Maochun Yu had lived in China for 23 years. Although many Chinese students did not have the opportunity to see the true nature of the Chinese Communist regime until after they moved to Western countries, Yu believes he has always had a clear understanding of the nature of the Chinese Communist Party.
Yu said his understanding of the Communist Party has remained largely unchanged; he said it is impossible to have a “misconception” of the CCP after living in China for decades because he has experienced everything firsthand.
He said, “The corruption of Chinese officials, the unfairness of the social system, the hunger and suffering of the people, the discontent of the people with their most basic demands, and the recognition and admiration of the creative ability of the Chinese people are all things that you cannot erase or avoid after living there for decades.”
But he also said that his basic concept of the Chinese Communist Party has been “sublimated and improved” since he arrived in the United States because of the comparative perspective.
For example, he said everyone in China felt that the hukou system was unreasonable and placed enormous restrictions on personal freedom, but he came to the United States with a better understanding and appreciation. He said that in the United States, where there is no hukou system, people enjoy the joy of freedom and “feel how huge the difference is between being a free person and not being a free person.
Under China’s hukou system, people do not have full freedom of movement. Many people who travel from abroad to work in major cities are denied access to social services such as medical care and Education for their children because they cannot obtain local hukou registration, with the result that children must stay in the countryside and be separated from their Parents who go to the city to work. In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party authorities have begun to relax restrictions and open up smaller cities to allow foreigners to “settle”.
Another example Yu cited was China’s Family planning policy. He said everyone knows that family planning is a huge violation of women’s rights, but in China it is only perceived as a party policy, and although people feel emotionally that it is cruel, the state may have its own considerations for balanced population development.
“When you wait until you live in the West, you feel that the cruelty is unspeakable.” Yu Maochun said.
Because of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s vivid Anti-Communist image, Yu Maochun, who is his chief adviser on China policy, has naturally been equated with anti-communism. As a result, Yu’s name was reportedly removed from the family tree of his hometown, Anhui Province, and his name was scratched from the list of top students by his alma mater, Yongchuan High School in Chongqing.
In response, Yu said he does not feel that his entire life, his identity, is anti-communist; he believes he is speaking the truth, not opposing for the sake of opposing.
He said that if he says that the CCP is a totalitarian rule, it seems to be an anti-communist statement on the surface, but it is not, because this is the reality; if he says that the CCP must change its behavior and not continue to suppress dissidents, it also looks like a political statement on the surface, but this is the biggest social reality in China, and it cannot be said that he is making these claims because he is anti-communist.
He stressed that what the Chinese Communist Party is doing is completely inconsistent with international standards, world trends and the fundamental principles of contemporary democracy and freedom, “so I think I’m telling the truth, and I now believe that millions of Chinese people will agree.
After stepping down as secretary of state on January 20, Pompeo moved to the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank, as a distinguished fellow. Maochun Yu joined the Hudson Institute after leaving the State Department.
When asked how he and Pompeo met, Yu would not disclose details, except to say that they were good friends and hit it off immediately.
Yu said that Pompeo was a visionary and the most committed patriot he had ever met. Pompeo’s love of American freedom, universal values and the fundamental principles on which the United States was founded, as well as his ability to listen to his staff, allowed him to move forward as secretary of state and to make important, visionary decisions at critical times.
Yu believes that Pompeo, 57, has a great political future and is one of the few political leaders.
Pompeo tweeted “1,384 days” the day after President Joe Biden took office on Jan. 20. Many believe Pompeo may seek the Republican nomination and run for the presidency four years from now.
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