Lets hear your understanding of the case.
Pursuant to Criminal Law of People's Republic of China, part 2, chapter 3, section 5, under the term "Financial Fraud"
中华人民共和国刑法(全文)（2011修正）
"第一百九十二条 以非法占有为目的，使用诈骗方法非法集资，数额较大的，处五年以下有期徒刑或者拘役，并处二万元以上二十万元以下罚金；数额巨大或者有其 他严重情节的，处五年以上十年以下有期徒刑，并处五万元以上五十万元以下罚金；数额特别巨大或者有其他特别严重情节的，处十年以上有期徒刑或者无期徒刑， 并处五万元以上五十万元以下罚金或者没收财产。"
Code 192 list three level of punishment for financial fraud:
1. Fraud of Large Sum: Imprisonment for less than five years and fine between 20000 to 200000 RMB.
2. Fraud of Very Large Sum or severe circumstances: Imprisonment for more than five years, less than ten years and fine between 50000 to 500000
3. Fraud of Extreme Large Sum or Extreme severe circumstances: Imprisonment for more than ten years or life-term and fine between 50000 to 500000 or total seizure of all financial assets
Pursuant to Supreme People's Court (Chinese equivalent to US Supreme Court)'s ruling regarding to financial fraud (date 1996, December 16th), benchmark for case 1 involve personal fraud greater than 200,000 and corporation fraud greater 500,000 RMB, benchmark for case 3 involves personal fraud greater than 1,000,000RMB and corporate fraud greater than 2,500,000.
最高人民法院1996年12月16日《关于审理诈骗案件具体应用法律若干问题的解释》的规定，个人集资诈骗20万元以上，单位在50万元以上的，便可认定为数额巨大；个人诈骗在100万元以上，单位在250万元以上的，则可认定属于数额特别巨大。
(Off topic) Baidu has a pretty good read on Chinese laws regarding to Financial Fraud:
金融诈骗罪_百度百科
Since Liu's case involves personal fraud of 3,000,000RMB which fall squarely into case 3, so his 11 year jail term is well justified. There is also zero chance the law is against him because they are all established in 90s. Note that in all articles defending him, there isn't a single source that claim he didn't perform the fraud. Even US sources admit that he did perform the fraud, but the argument was always his term is too heavy, which is kinda understandable because while US also have criminal law against financial fraud and still consider it a criminal act, its term is somewhat shorter than the Chinese equivalent.
Basically, Liu got 11 years in China. Had he been judged in an US court, he would have gotten 8 years instead. Really, had he been an ordinary criminal, people wouldn't have bat an eye on the difference in ruling because different country have different level of punishment for certain crimes, but since he had a famous relative, the tabloids were eating it up.
Personally, I am not the least bit surprised regarding to Liu's term. He was charged in 2010 where the Chinese government were laying down heavy punishment against criminal activities in the real estate market in an effort to curb the housing price. This was the same time where many fraudulent loan groups and real estate marketers got fried. Liu's criminal act at a time period like that pretty much put gigantic "shoot me" sign over his head. The fact that he is a relative to someone who is known for society disruption and attempts against China certainly won't do him any favor. I wouldn't be surprised that department of national security (Chinese equivalent to FBI and CIA) would have done a thorough checking on the guy to make sure it isn't a case of financial espionage.
So you see why I am annoyed with JayAtl's rush defense of a criminal. This is someone who had iron-clad evidence against him and already confessed the crime. The sentence dished out was also well within the establish code (In fact, a bit light because the highest term for extreme large sum financial fraud is life sentence) and the kicker is, an US court would have convicted the guy all the same, just with a slightly short sentence since the laws are somewhat different.
