Dr. Yao Yunzhu is a retired major general of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China. She joined the PLA in 1970, served in the PLA as an Army soldier, a staff officer, an instructor, a researcher, deputy director and director of a research office, and director of a research center. She holds a Master of Arts degree from the PLA’s Foreign Languages Institute, a Ph.D. in Military Science from the Academy of Military Sciences. She had been a visiting scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University from 1995 to 1996, an Eisenhower Fellow in 1999, and a visiting fellow at Harvard University from 2009 to 2010.

She has published numerous books, translated books, articles and papers on international military and security issues, US military affairs, nuclear weapon policy and arms control, and such Asia-Pacific security issues as cross Taiwan-Strait relations, maritime disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea, and tension in the Korean Peninsula. Her works include Post-war American Deterrence: Theories and Policies, On Asia-Pacific Security Strategy (author of chapters), and 20th Century Strategic Legacy and the World through Chinese Scholars (author of chapters).