Liu Yang was born in 1942 in Dongliao County, Jilin Province. She graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Jilin University in August 1967. She joined the Chinese Communist Party in April 1966 and began her professional career in August 1967.[2] Liu first worked in the Changchun Municipal Public Security Bureau, where she served successively as a staff member, deputy section chief, deputy director of the office, and chief of the research section. She later became Deputy Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the Changchun Municipal Committee, and subsequently a member of the Standing Committee of the Changchun Municipal Committee, Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission, and Vice Mayor of Changchun, concurrently serving as Director of the Changchun Public Security Bureau.[3]
She was later appointed Director and Party Secretary of the Jilin Provincial Department of Justice. In November 1994, she was appointed Vice Minister of Justice and became a member of the Ministry’s Party Leadership Group. In March 2003, she was elected a member of the Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee of the 10th National People's Congress. That same year, she became Party Secretary of the China Law Society, and in November 2003, she additionally assumed the position of Executive Vice President.[4] She continued to serve as Executive Vice President and Deputy Party Secretary of the China Law Society from November 2011.[1]
Liu Yang has been a delegate to the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, a deputy to the Tenth National People’s Congress, and a representative to the Eighth National Women’s Congress. She has also served as Vice President of the Law Association for Asia and the Pacific (LAWASIA).[5]