Cindy Yu

Cindy Yu is an expert on modern China. She is a writer, media commentator and podcast host. Her work focuses on Chinese politics and society, China’s foreign relations and the lives of Chinese diaspora overseas.

Yu speaks from personal experience on this latter aspect having grown up in Nanjing. She moved to the UK at the age of 10 and went on to read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford. Fluent in English and Mandarin, she also gained a Master of Science in contemporary Chinese studies.

Cindy is a columnist for The Times. She was previously assistant editor at The Spectator where she led the magazine’s China coverage. Her articles examine cross-Strait relations, CCP politics and China’s foreign policy. Yu also hosts the magazine’s “Chinese Whispers” podcast.  There, Cindy Yu talks to experts, journalists and long-time China watchers about all things China.

In a climate of dramatic rhetoric about a new ‘clash of civilisations’, Yu is a voice of a calm. She counsels against western overreactions to China’s threat. She argues the PRC is not the omnipotent adversary some paint it as. It faces its own internal strife as it confronts weakening demographics, a broken housing market and the political fragility of a one-man show. In this context, Yu thinks it unlikely that China would hurt itself by choking global supply chains in a future economic battle.

UK and international media regularly seek Yu’s expertise. She has written for Foreign Policy and The Telegraph. Alongside apperances on mainstream news, she was a guest on the popular Coleman Hughes podcast. And she recently spoke about the international influence of TikTok for The Institute of Art and Ideas.