Biography
Introduction to Professor YU Miaojie
Yu Miaojie was born in Chaozhou, Guangdong Province, in 1976. He is a deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress, a member of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress of Liaoning Province, the deputy secretary of the Party Committee and the president of Liaoning University, the chairman of the Academic Committee, and the chairman of the Academic Degrees Committee of the University. Yu is a distinguished professor of the national talent program, a winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, an outstanding young scientist of Beijing, and a Liberal-Art Chair Professor at Peking University. He also serves as Vice President of the China Society of World Economics, Vice President of the China Econometrics Association, Vice President of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong & Macao Studies, Secretary-General of the International Consortium for China Studies, a member of the Economic and Trade Policy Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Commerce, and a council member of “China-US Research Think Tank Alliance” (under the Ministry of Finance). Additionally, Yu is a winner of the NG Teng Fong / Sino Scholarship for Outstanding Youth and holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Davis in the United States.
Yu Miaojie’s main fields of research are international trade, world economy, and China’s economic development. He is among the top one percent most highly cited economists in the field of economics and management in the entire world and is also at present the only Chinese scholar to win the Royal Economic Society Prize. Yu’s award-winning study, “Processing Trade, Tariff Reduction and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Chinese Firms”, has been rated as one of the three most influential papers by the Economic Journal since its inception in 1891. He was specially invited to the United Nations Headquarters to make a report on China’s economic development and was warmly received by General Secretary Xi Jinping as a representative of outstanding teachers at Peking University during its 120th anniversary.
Yu has published more than 170 academic papers in top journals at home and abroad, including Economic Journal, Review of Economics & Statistics, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Development Economics, Economic Research Journal, Journal of Management World, China Economic Quarterly, and The Journal of World Economy. He has also published 23 monographs, textbooks, and op-ed essays in Chinese and English. His representative monograph, Processing Trade and Productivity of Chinese Enterprises, won the highest prize in national humanities and social sciences research at the 7th Wu Yuzhang Humanities and Social Sciences Research Awards; the award is given once every five years, making Yu the third Peking University economist (after Li Yining and Lin Yifu) to receive the prize. He has also won the Zhang Peigang Development Economics Outstanding Achievement Award (being the national highest award in development economics research), twice been given the Excellent Achievement Award of Philosophy and Social Sciences by the Ministry of Education, the Philosophy and Social Sciences Excellent Achievement Award of Beijing, and five times been given the Anzijie International Trade Research Award (being the national highest award in international trade research). Concurrently, Yu’s works and papers have won the Liu Shibai Economics Award, the Hu Sheng Youth Academic Research Award, and the National Trade Development Research Award, with his paper published in Economic Research Journal winning the first China Young Economist Award. He was invited to be the executive editor of International Trade (the official journal of Ministry of Commerce) as well as the executive editor of Journal of Chang’an University, a member of the editorial board of Fundamental Research (the official journal of the National Natural Science Foundation of China), and a member of the editorial board of more than ten influential domestic academic journals.
Yu’s international academic influence is exemplified in his English paper on China’s foreign trade and economic development, which was rated as the best paper in the last two years by Economic Journal, one of the top journals of international economics for more than 130 years. Moreover, Yu is the only Chinese economist to have ever won the Royal Economic Society Prize, with his award-winning paper being rated by Economic Journal as one of the three most influential papers since its inception in 1891.
Yu Miaojie has been invited to be the deputy editor of Review of International Economics (one of the global core journals in international economics), the deputy editor of China Economic Journal (which specializes in studying China’s economy), and an editorial board member or guest editor of nearly ten internationally renowned SSCI academic journals. At present, Yu’s academic citations on Google exceed 4,400 hits, while his sole independent English paper exceeds 1000 hits alone, with many of his papers being listed among the top one percent of in the work of global economic management. In the past decade, he is one of the most cited authors among mainland economists.
Yu has presided over many major and key projects in national philosophy and social sciences as well as major projects in the humanities and social sciences under the Ministry of Education. He has presided over many projects, too, including the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, the General Fund, and the Beijing Outstanding Young Scientists Project. Yu currently presides over the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, which has received much praise and acclaim. He is a member of academic committees of many top research institutions off campus, including the Institute of World Economics and Politics of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Yu serves as an evaluation expert of national talent projects for the Ministry of Education, along with key projects under the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
As an educator, Yu has taught numerous courses at the University of California, the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Peking University, and Liaoning University; some of his students include Peking University’s doctoral candidates as well as undergraduates, MBA students, and other students from South-South Cooperation and Development College, all of whom Yu has taught both at home and abroad. His teaching methods have won favorable feedback from students, exemplified in his winning the Peking University Higher Education Achievement Award, the Peking University Teaching Excellence Award, and the Cao Fengqi Finance Teaching Award. Yu’s textbook, International Trade: Theory, Policy and Practice, won the Peking University Excellent Textbook Award and has been adopted by many top universities in China. He is currently serving as Editor-in-Chief of China Open Economics, which is the first collection of Chinese economic textbooks under the Ministry of Education. Most of Yu’s doctoral and master’s graduates have been employed by first-class universities, at home and abroad, or within relevant state ministries and commissions, eventually becoming business backbones.
In terms of hi work in CPC organizations, Yu was formerly the party secretary and vice president of the National School of Development of Peking University. He was considered an outstanding party worker at Peking University and served as the head of the inspection team there, being responsible for inspecting the university’s School of Government. During his tenure as the party secretary of the National School of Development at Peking University, its Party Committee was awarded the Advanced Party Organization of Peking University, while the National School of Development was awarded the “National Advanced Collective Unit in Poverty Alleviation and Difficulties Tackling” on behalf of Peking University; as a result, Yu attended the National Poverty Alleviation and Difficulties Tackling Comprehensive Victory Celebration Conference, hosted by Secretary General Xi Jinping, as an award-winning representative. Yu has repeatedly taught courses on China’s economic development, “double circulation,” and new development pattern for students in the departments and bureaus of the Central Organization Department. One of his courses was selected as one of the two “National Cadre Training Courses” of Peking University. Moreover, Yu was invited to record the well-received online open courses for the State Supervision Commission of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
In terms of social services, Yu Miaojie has been appointed as an expert consultant by the United Nations, Asian Development Bank, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, Counsellors’ Office of the State Council, Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, and many local governments, even being specially invited to the United Nations Headquarters to give a report on China’s economic development. He is currently appointed as a member of the Third Economic and Trade Policy Advisory Committee of Ministry of Commerce, where he serves as the leader of the third-party evaluation team for the pilot project of building a new open economic system in China. He is also a member of the second group of experts for the National Medium- and Long-Term Youth Planning and Development. He is currently a representative of Peking University’s China-US Think Tank Research Alliance of Ministry of Finance.
As a columnist for the overseas network of People’s Daily, the NetEase Research Bureau, and other news publications, Yu’s monographs, Yu Miaojie’s Commentary on the China-US Trade and Trade Seems Like This, were both rated as bestsellers in foreign trade on Dangdang and Amazon. He has published many articles in People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, Economic Daily, Xinhua News Agency, CCTV News Network, Frontline, China Comment, and other central media, while also being invited more than ten times as an expert scholar and commentator on the television program Focus Report. His English monograph, China-US Trade War & Trade Talk, has been awarded the China New Development Award by the world’s largest publishing house, Springer-Nature, and was translated into German for publication.
In the 120th anniversary celebration of Peking University in 2018, Yu Miaojie was cordially received by General Secretary Xi Jinping as one of the representatives of outstanding young- and middle-aged teachers at Peking University. In the commemoration of May Fourth Youth Day on “New Era and New Youth” at Peking University, he was additionally selected as one of the only two teacher representatives in the whole university. In 2019 and 2021, he participated three times in prestigious symposiums hosted by Premier Li Keqiang, where Yu served both as an outstanding representative of the 25th anniversary of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and an expert representative of the Natural Science Foundation of China.
See Prof. Yu's CV here:
YU MIAOJIE - CV Jan. 2023.pdf