On July 20, Brendt Christensen, the defendant of Yingying Zhang’s kidnapping case, was arraigned by the Federal Court in Urbana of Illinois. Acting Consul General Liu Jun and staff from Overseas Chinese, Education, and Political and press sections accompanied the family of Yingying Zhang for the arraignment.

The arraignment lasted about 5 minutes. Magistrate Judge Eric Long stated the crimes Christensen had committed, and Christensen's attorney Anthony Bruno plead not guilty on behalf of the suspect. Judge Long declared that the case would be tried on September 12.

After the arraignment, Liu Jun met with the US Attorneys and FBI agents in charge of the case, conveyed the family’s request once again, emphasizing that it is imperative to find the whereabouts of Yingying Zhang. He hoped that the police could enhance their efforts, mobilize all resources to collect evidence, investigate on clues to find Yingying Zhang as early as possibly, in order to give the victim’s family a satisfactory result.

Liu Jun visited Yingying Zhang’s family again, wishing them to remain strong and take good care of themselves.