Liu Yijun is a former journalist and editor, and a poet, who fled mainland China for Hong Kong after the 1989 pro-democracy movement and was accepted for resettlement in Canada in 1992. Her Chinese name characters were not established in the sources reviewed and are therefore not supplied here.
Amnesty International reported in September 1992 that Liu, then 29, was a university graduate and former journalist/editor. According to Amnesty, Liu said that articles she wrote criticizing Chinese government policy had been published by a magazine in Hainan during and shortly after the 1989 movement.
Liu left mainland China for Hong Kong. Lin Lin, a 24-year-old computer programmer who had sheltered her, later joined her there. The two women faced removal from Hong Kong to China in September 1992.
On September 3, 1992, Amnesty International warned that Liu and Lin would face a grave risk of imprisonment as prisoners of conscience if forcibly returned. Their lawyers challenged the immigration authorities’ removal decision.
By September 15–16, 1992, Canadian authorities had accepted both women for resettlement. Amnesty reported on September 16 that they were on their way to Canada and closed its urgent-action campaign.
A South China Morning Post report dated July 1, 1993 said a Canadian politician had lobbied Ottawa to accept Liu and Lin as political refugees after their release from detention in Hong Kong. The report’s use of “prison” is not treated here as proof of a Hong Kong criminal conviction; the Amnesty record concerns immigration-removal proceedings.
Status: no verified public information about Liu Yijun after July 1993 was located. Her later residence, activities, and current status are unknown.
Sources: Amnesty International, September 3, 1992; Amnesty International, September 15, 1992; Amnesty International follow-up, September 16, 1992; South China Morning Post, July 1, 1993.