Tiananmen Square protester turned lawyer killed in his New York office

Arrest made after stabbing of Li Jinjin, who had settled in the US and worked as an immigration lawyer
Li had been jailed in China after joining the 1989 protests and continued to advocate for those punished by the Chinese authorities

Human rights

Associated Press

Published: 12:18pm, 15 Mar 2022

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A dissident legal scholar who was jailed for two years in China after taking part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement was killed on Monday in his law firm’s office in New York, where he had settled after seeking asylum in the US, police said.

Li Jinjin, 66, was stabbed to death in the city where he had long worked as an immigration lawyer, even as he continued to advocate publicly for the many people jailed or killed by Chinese authorities during the nation’s democracy movement.

An arrest was made over his killing. Police said Xiaoning Zhang, 25, was taken into custody and faced a murder charge. It was not immediately clear when she would be arraigned or whether she had retained an attorney.

Chuang Chuang Chen, CEO of the China Democracy Party, and lawyer Wei Zhu, a friend of Li’s, both told the New York Daily News that the killing might have stemmed from Li’s refusal to take Zhang on as a client.

Li Jinjin had been prominent in the 1989 pro-democracy protests in China. Photo: SCMP

Zhang went to the US in August on an F-1 student visa to study in Los Angeles, Chen told the Daily News.

Li, who also went by the first name Jim, was often quoted in recent years by news organisations looking for insight or commentary on the Chinese dissident community or on relations between China and the West. As an immigration lawyer, he also represented some Chinese expatriates living in the US who were considered fugitives by that country.

Prior to his imprisonment for protesting, Li had been a legal adviser to an independent trade union that had challenged China’s government on worker rights.

“I can’t believe it. She not only destroyed his life, but the hope of our community,” Zhu told the newspaper. “He wanted to realise democracy in China. He will never realise that dream.”