Amanda Zhao

Amanda Zhao Wei (28 February 1981 – 7 October 2002) was a Chinese student in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, who was murdered in October 2002. Zhao was studying English at Coquitlam College when she was reported missing on October 9, 2002, and her body was found inside a suitcase by hikers near Stave Lake on October 20, 2002, where an autopsy revealed that Zhao had been strangled to death.

Zhao's boyfriend Li Ang (李昂) was the prime suspect. Li was arrested in China and charged by a Beijing court for Zhao's murder. Li was initially given a life sentence, but this was changed to a seven-year imprisonment.

Amanda Zhao's murder and the subsequent investigation highlighted issues with the co-operation of Canada and China in matters of justice, and issues of jurisdiction within Canadian law enforcement.

Background Amanda Zhao Wei , born on 28 February 1981 in Shaanxi, the People's Republic of China, was a Chinese national, and at the time of her death a 21-year-old international student studying English at Coquitlam College located in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, near the city of Vancouver.

On October 9, 2002, Zhao was reported missing to the authorities, and just over a week later on October 20, her corpse was discovered contained within a suitcase by hikers near Stave Lake, east of Vancouver.

Investigation The two murder suspects in the case, Li Ang (李昂) and Zhang Han (张瀚), were arrested in China in the summer of 2009. The prime suspect Li Ang, who was Zhao's boyfriend at the time of murder, was initially in Canada when Zhao's body was found. Li was a Chinese national and a computer science student at Simon Fraser University, located in the Vancouver area.

Zhang Han, who was Li's cousin, was also implicated in the case. He later confessed that he had helped Li dispose of Zhao's body and helped Li travel back to China after the murder. However, three days after Zhao's body was found, Li returned to China.

Li was initially questioned by the RCMP on the case, but it was not until seven months after the murder that the RCMP issued a warrant for his arrest and he was charged with second-degree murder in absentia by the Canadian government.

In 2004, Li had been taken into custody by the Chinese government, but was later released due to lack of evidence. In 2014, Li's sentence was changed by the Supreme court of Beijing to 7 years. The original first degree murder charge has been changed to secondary degree murder charge as the Supreme court of Beijing ruled that Zhao was accidentally killed by Li during a pillow play fight. The court decision was controversial as the court ruled without any new evidence. Zhao's mother, Yang Baoying, criticised the verdict as a travesty.

Aftermath The arrests for Amanda Zhao's murder took many years to complete due to the reluctance of the Canadian government in providing evidence about murder cases to China, as Chinese authorities allow for capital punishment for murder, which is illegal in Canada. On October 13, 2009, Secretary of State for Multiculturalism Jason Kenney said that China's capital punishment policy has been a problem in the case. Li's pro-Tibetan activism was disputed by the local Tibetan community in Auckland, who described his behaviour as opportunistic in light of his murder conviction.