Bio 

Zhao Lianrong was born in 1963 in China. By 1999, he was 36 years old, married, and had a young child. Zhao worked as a factory worker in Beijing. He lived next door to the dormitory where the victims stayed. People who knew Zhao saw him as a regular worker and family man. He was a private man with few close friends, unhappy with his life, and frustrated by money and social status. Zhao had an interest in martial-arts stories, action films, and knives. 

By late May 1999, Zhao was living beside a dormitory occupied by young women migrant workers. In the early hours of May 30, 1999, after drinking alcohol, he entered the dormitory intending to rob them. The break-in turned into a mass murder that became one of Beijing’s most serious homicide cases at that time.

Murder Story

In the early hours of May 30, 1999, Zhao Lianrong entered a dormitory in Beijing’s western Shijingshan District. The dormitory housed young women migrant workers, reportedly from Fujian and Zhejiang provinces. Zhao lived next door to the victims. Reports state that he was drunk and entered through a dormitory window with the intention of stealing money.

The situation changed when one of the women woke up and screamed. Zhao then attacked with a knife. English-language summaries state that he stabbed eight women to death in one night. Tehran Times, citing AFP and the Beijing Evening Post, reported that the victims suffered more than 100 wounds in total.

The women were between 17 and 24 years old. They were migrant workers living away from their home provinces for employment. The attack caused major public concern in Beijing because of the number of victims, the speed of the killings, and the fact that the women were attacked inside shared housing.

After the killings, police began a manhunt. Zhao was arrested on June 6, 1999, according to the main case summary. Amnesty International’s death-penalty log, which collected Chinese and international press reports, also records the case and identifies Zhao as a 36-year-old factory worker who lived next door to the hostel where the victims lived.

Zhao was tried quickly. On July 2, 1999, a Chinese court sentenced him to death for intentional homicide. Reports state that Zhao apologized to the victims’ families in court. He did not file an appeal within the legal time period, according to the translated case material.

The death sentence was reviewed and approved through the court process then in effect. On July 21, 1999, Zhao Lianrong was executed in Beijing. Tehran Times reported the execution the next day, stating that Zhao had been convicted of intentional homicide for the deaths of eight young women in Shijingshan.