Chen Chi-li - Murder of Henry Liu

Murder of Henry Liu

Chen claimed he received the order to kill Henry Liu on 14 August 1984, from KMT officials angered by Liu's authorship of a biography critical of Republic of China president Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of Chiang Kai-shek. They allegedly offered him a US$20,000 reward to carry out the murder, which he refused, instead agreeing to kill Liu without compensation out of "patriotism". For one month afterwards, he received training at the intelligence bureau's school at Yangmingshan, outside of Taipei, where intelligence officials gave him details of Liu's schedule and movements. During his training period, he also met with Chiang Hsiao-wu, son of Chiang Ching-kuo, whom he stated personally approved the killing. He departed for the United States in September of that same year. Chen and his associate Wu Tun had initially planned to murder Liu on their own by intercepting him at Fisherman's Wharf; after finding the area to be too crowded, they decided instead to attempt to attack him in his home, and enlisted the help of Tung Kuei-sen, a fellow United Bamboo Gang member who was also in the area. The three ambushed Liu in his garage on 15 October 1984, where Wu and Tung shot him; a few days after the killing, Chen, Wu, and Tung all flew back to Taiwan together.

Fearing that he would be betrayed, Chen left a tape with his associate, "Yellow Bird", in Houston, Texas, naming the officials behind the case. When the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation found the tape, they put immense pressure on the Taiwanese government to bring him to trial. At his 1985 trial in Taipei, Chen testified in more detail about the connection with the KMT, claiming that Wang Hsi-ling, a vice admiral in the Republic of China Navy and the head of Taiwan's military intelligence, ordered him to kill Liu because Liu was a double agent, spying for both Taiwan and mainland China. Chen claims he disobeyed the order and instructed his associates to "teach a lesson" and avoid killing or crippling him. Chen, Wang, and Wu were all sentenced to life in prison on 9 April 1985.

Jerome Cohen, then a professor of law at Harvard University, attended an administrative hearing for Chen and Wu on behalf of Liu's widow Helen Liu; he derided the trial as a "well-rehearsed performance", stating that the two read their statements from notebooks, and implied that their testimonies had been coached by the Taiwanese government, who sought to portray Wang as a rogue officer acting alone, and avoid other intelligence officials being implicated. The week after the trial, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by a vote of 387-2 a non-binding resolution (H.Con.Res. 110) calling on Taipei to extradite Chen and Wu to the United States to stand trial there; the "nay" votes came from Bob Stump (R-AZ) and Howard C. Nielson (R-UT). Taipei rejected the request the following day. Less than two months after his conviction, Chen retracted his accusations against Wang.

Chen, Wang, and Wu were given clemency by the Taiwanese government and released in January 1991. He and Wu were treated as "heroes" by the media and the public; Chen declared his intention to transform the United Bamboo Gang into a legitimate business enterprise, and established Chuan An Construction, which was successful not only in the booming construction industry on Taiwan, but also made large investments outside Taiwan as well, including an RMB10 billion resort project in Hunan's Moon Lake area.