A lawyer who was jailed in China for two years after he participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest was killed Monday in his New York office, officials said.
Li Jinjin, 66, an immigration lawyer, was found fatally stabbed in his Queens office shortly before noon Monday, New York City police said.Officers responded to a report of an assault in progress at the office in the Flushing neighborhood, where they found Li “unconscious and unresponsive” with “stab wounds to his body and neck,” police said.
Li, of Great Neck on Long Island, was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.
Xiaoning Zhang, 25, of Queens, was arrested on suspicion of murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, police said.
It was not clear Tuesday whether she had retained a lawyer or made an initial appearance in court. Efforts to reach her and her relatives for comment Tuesday were not successful.
Police released no additional information.
Li, who also went by the first name Jim, was often quoted by news organizations looking for insight or commentary on the Chinese dissident community or on relations between China and the West. He also represented some Chinese expatriates living in the U.S. who were considered fugitives by Beijing.
Before his imprisonment for protesting, Li had been a legal adviser to an independent labor union that had challenged China’s government over workers rights. He settled in New York after he sought asylum in the U.S.