Liu was born in 1952 in Fenghua, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. Liu Yazhou has been described as a "princeling": his father-in-law was a top military officer, and Li Xiannian, who once served as President of the People's Republic of China, was his father-in-law. This privileged political pedigree gives him a greater platform for his views and opinions. His writings "have dazzled as well as upset his readers; supporters praise his boldness and insight, and detractors condemn his alleged militarism and demagoguery." Liu has written novels and essays to both acclaim and controversy; he is unusual in China, as a prominent military figure, for his outspoken views and apparent violation of a number of taboos on political discourse. At the same time, his prolific writing may have contributed in part to his rise through the ranks. He leans on the sayings of former Chinese leaders to make indirect criticisms of Chinese Communist Party policies. Unlike many PLA officials, Liu has traveled much overseas, including serving as a visiting professor at Stanford University. In 2010 Liu was promoted by deputy political commissar of the PLA Air Force, to political commissar of NDU, the premier academic and defense research institute in China. Prior to that Liu was the director of the political division of the Beijing Military Region, the political commissar of the Chengdu Military Region's Air Force, and the deputy political commissar of the PLA Air Force.
Comments on democracy and reform
Liu Yazhou made headlines in the West in 2010 when he made a series of public remarks about democracy in China. "Democracy is the most urgent; without it there is no sustainable rise. Ideals of democracy are not restricted by national borders, or by historical ones," he said in August 2010, in an article in the Hong Kong magazine Phoenix Weekly. Remarks like this led to Liu gaining a reputation as an "outspoken" and "reformist" general. "'If a system fails to let its citizens breathe freely and release their creativity to the maximum extent, and fails to place those who best represent the system and its people into leadership positions, it is certain to perish," he wrote. In an alleged internal speech in August 2013, Liu argues that reforms in China are now in "deep water" and that the country can no longer "cross the river by feeling for stones," as Party patriarch Deng Xiaoping put it in the early period of growth of the 1990s. Liu suggests that further reforms require political change, and ultimately even competitive elections.
Hawkish stance
While Liu has made remarks that appear surprising in terms of supporting democracy and greater political openness, he has also been involved in strongly patriotic propaganda, most notably the documentary film Silent Contest, which proposes that there is a monumental ideological battle currently taking place between the United States and China. Liu's hawkishness can also differ from the more explicitly militarized claims of propaganda figures like Dai Xu and Zhang Zhaozhong. In an essay titled “The Grand National Strategy" written in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attack, Liu argued against taking advantage of the fallout of the attack to attempt to conquer Taiwan. He advocated "diplomacy over fighting," and suggested the exploitation of Taiwan's political system over strongarm tactics. For this, analyst Alfred Chan calls him a "nationalist and a realist."
