Tiananmen Square protester granted asylum in U.S. stabbed to death

A Tiananmen Square protestor turned immigration lawyer was killed in his New York City office on Monday by a client upset he would not take her case, according to the New York Daily News.

Jinjin (Jim) Li, 66, was jailed for two years in 1989 by the Chinese government for participating in the 1989 student democracy movement at Tiananmen Square that infamously ended in a bloody massacre of protesters. He sought asylum in the U.S. in 1993, where he worked as an immigration lawyer and advocate for democracy in China.

On Monday, Li was attacked in his office by a woman who had created a disruptive scene in his office the week before. He died at the hospital from stab wounds to his body and neck.

The alleged attacker, Xiaoning Zhang, 25, was arrested and charged with murder and possessing a deadly weapon.

“I can’t believe it. She not only destroyed his life, but the hope of our community,” his best friend, lawyer Wei (Wayne) Zhu, told the Daily News. “He wanted to realize democracy in China. He will never realize that dream.”

Zhang reportedly came to the U.S. in August on an F-1 student visa to go to school in Los Angeles but went straight to Li on Friday to apply for asylum, claiming she had been raped by police in Beijing who sent her to a mental facility.

“He didn’t want to take her case. There was no reason to kill him. She came here last Friday and made a scene. The office called police but she ran away,” Zhu said.

Li’s friends speculated he did not want to take her case because she seemed mentally unstable.

“Why didn’t the receptionist stop her? There was a big fight on Friday, and she ran away. They let her into his private office,” longtime friend Ai Wang told the Daily News. “She stabbed him in the neck and the heart. In 1989 he was a leader in Tiananmen Square. We don’t know how to deal with his loss.”

“His last message on Instagram was a support of a free Ukraine,” Wang added.