THE MURDER OF HENRY LIU

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000301610008-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2010
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: March 3, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO' N REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
STATION WDVM-TV
CBS Network
DATE March 3, 1985 7:00 P.M. CITY Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT The Murder of Henry Liu
DIANE SAWYER: Five months ago there was a murder in a
quiet suburb of San Francisco, a murder that would send shock
waves halfway around the world, from Washington to Taiwan. The
murdered man was a 51-year-old American of Chinese descent named
Henry Liu, a journalist, a constant critic of the government on
Taiwan, the author of a criticial biography of its President.
But there are signs that Henry Liu was also a man playing with
fire.
LT. TOM REESE: The date was October the 15th, 1984. The
murder occurred sometime 9:15, we figure, 9:10, 9:15 in the
morning.
SAWYER: Lieutenant Tom Reese (?) is Chief of Detectives
in Daly City, California, the middle-class suburb south of San
Francisco where Henry Liu lived on this quiet cul-de-sac over-
looking the Pacific Ocean.
As Henry Liu walked to his garage to load some boxes
into his car, the gunmen were lying in wait. There was a
struggle. They opened fire. Henry Liu was shot at close range
three times, twice in the abdomen, once between the eyes.
When Lieutenant Reese and his detectives arrived at the
scene, there was little to go on. But when they started asking
questions, the answers brought a surprise.
LT. REESE: Early on in the investigation people were
telling us that he was killed for his writings, it was a poli-
tically motivated killing.
SAWYER: A political, killing in Daly City? At this
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point, Henry Liu's family and friends told police stories that
most of us find hard to believe: that these things could happen
to Americans in America. They said that a foreign power, the
government on Taiwan, had tentacles that reach across the ocean
into their neighborhoods. They said Chinese-Americans are
watched by agents for Taiwan, literally thousands of agents, who
create fear and intimidation.
We were told that some people in the community had begun
wearing bulletproof vests and carrying guns since the death of
Henry Liu.
There are 800,000 Americans of Chinese descent in the
United States. Henry Liu was one of them. He came to the U.S.
from Taiwan 17 years ago. His critical reports about his old
government circulated freely among overseas Chinese, but they
were banned in Taiwan. This didn't seem to bother Henry Liu.
Henry Liu's wife, Helen.
Was he afraid? Did he worry?
HELEN LIU: No, not at all. He always felt [unintel-
ligible] that in America they wouldn't do anything to him here.
SAWYER: His friends say Henry Liu saw himself as a kind
of Woodward and Bernstein, as he attacked the government on
Taiwan, and in particular its President, Chiang Ching-kuo, as in
his biography of Chiang Ching-kuo. In it, Liu says that says
that Chiang was brutal to his enemies and that he was an oppor-
tunist.
Liu's attacks on the ruler of Taiwan had thrust him into
a world of intrigue and danger. According to Mrs. Liu, for many
years the Taiwan government had tried to influence his writings.
A year ago they succeeded, and soon thereafter money started to
arrive, apparently part of a deal between the Taiwan government
and its critic Henry Liu.
And he was told that he would get how much money?
MRS. LIU: Twenty thousand. And first they were going
to wire him $8000, then [unintelligible] equally divided.
SAWYER: So he was going to receive a total of $20,000.
MRS. LIU: Yes.
SAWYER: But the last payment never came.
MRS. LIU: No.
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SAWYER: Why?
MRS. LIU: I don't know.
SAWYER: The gunmen arrived instead?
MRS. LIU: Yeah, I think so. Yeah.
SAWYER: The government on Taiwan denied any role in the
murder. But the FBI entered the case because they say they knew
from the outset there was a possibility of foreign government
involvement.
So the Daly City police and the FBI investigators,
counterintelligence investigators who spoke Chinese, started
asking questions. All in all, nearly 200 interviews here in San
Francisco's Chinatown and here in southern California in Monterey
Park, a city east of Los Angeles. It's a city with a growing
Asian population, including a large number of new immigrants from
Taiwan.
Here in Monterey Park, the Daly City police followed the
trail into a mysterious Chinese underworld. They began to hear
about a crime syndicate, a kind of Chinese Mafia, called the
Bamboo Gang.
SAWYER: And what were they? Who were they?
REESE: The initial information is that they were a
Taiwan-based street gang, a little bit larger than your average
street gang, supposedly having ties with extortion, prostitution,
gambling houses in Taiwan.
SAWYER: Reese was told by members of the Chinese-
American community that this man was the leader of the Taiwan
Bamboo Gang, a man named Chen Chee-Lee (?), known as "The Duck."
Reese was told that The Duck had come to the United States with a
hit squad to murder Henry Liu.
Why would The Duck come to kill Henry Liu? To find out,
we went to this restaurant in Monterey Park. Police told us that
the owner of the restaurant is a leaderof the Bamboo Gang in the
United States. His name is Chen An-Lo (?). He is also known as
White Wolf.
Tell us about the Bamboo Gang. How many members are
there?
CHEN AN-L0: I think 40,000 to 50,000 people in Taiwan.
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SAWYER: Tens of thousands in Taiwan. But in the United
States, White Wolf said, there are only about a hundred members
of the Bamboo Gang. White Wolf claims that the members in this
country are not involved in illegal activity. But police
testified before a presidential organized crime commission that
they are.
White Wolf described the Bamboo Gang's initiation rites.
Each member pricks his finger. Blood is then drained into a
glass of alcohol, which everyone drinks.
CHEN AN-LO: That means that I am your brother. You
have my blood.
SAWYER: He said that to understand the actions of the
Bamboo Gang in Taiwan you must know that the gang has its own
brand of fierce patriotism; that although members profit from
vice and violence, they live by a moral code, by rules that
prohibit disrespect of elders, a rule that prohibits disloyalty.
Is there one for not killing?
SAWYER: He also told us that The Duck is very powerful
in Taiwan and has high-level political connections. And then he
claimed that a murder of someone in this country almost happened
before.
You stopped it?
CHEN AN-LO: Yes.
SAWYER: Here in the United States?
CHEN AN-LO: In the United States.
SAWYER: What kind of people? Who?
CHEN AN-LO: I promised to, you know, keep secret.
SAWYER: White Wolf did not stop the murder of Henry
Liu. He claims he had no prior knowledge of it. He admits that
one of the gunmen stayed with him prior to the murder. But he
says this gunman, a friend, told him only afterwards that he had
been sent to kill Henry Liu because Liu was a traitor and a
communist. He said the gunman also told him that he had been
sent by the government on Taiwan.
CHEN AN-LO: You know, his job is to kill communists.
So when he went in San Francisco, he thought he did a good job.
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SAWYER: Why is White Wolf telling us these things? He
says it's because the government double-crossed The Duck and the
gunman. As it became clear that the Daly City police were about
to reveal all they knew about The Duck and the murder, Taiwan
authorities launched a massive crackdown on the Bamboo Gang,
arresting a thousand gangsters, including their leader, The Duck.
The authorities on Taiwan said The Duck confessed to
planning the murder, but they refused to send The Duck back to
the U.S. to stand trial.
So, at this point, the Daly City police knew who had
pulled the trigger and who had planned the murder, but they
didn't know the motive and they had no one to prosecute. The
investigation of Henry Liu's murder appeared to be at an impasse.
But things started to change, and change quickly, with
this, a tape recording by none other than Chen Chee-Lee, The Duck
himself. He recorded it after the murder, while he was still in
California. It was his insurance policy, and he decided to cash
it in. Fearing a double-cross, The Duck was not going to take
the rap himself. He pointed the finger directly at the govern-
ment.
This man says he's a close friend of The Duck. He
agreed to join our interview if we would conceal his identity.
He was one of those who arranged to get the tape to the Daly City
police. Here is what he and White Wolf told us The Duck said on
that tape.
[Man speaks in Chinese]
SAWYER: The Duck said that two months before the
murder, he got the order to kill Henry Liu from this man, Admiral
Wong, Taiwan's Director of Military Intelligence. The Duck says
on the tape that he was told Henry Liu was a traitor to the
government on Taiwan. The Duck said he had a ten-day training
session for the murder. And then he went so far as to give
details on how the murder was carried out.
Our law enforcement sources confirmed that these
statements are on the tape made by The Duck.
The news of the tape rocked the government on Taiwan and
led tem to make a stunning announcement. Two high-level intel-
ligence officers were arrested for involvement in the assassina-
tion of Henry Liu. And Admiral Wong, the head of Military
Intelligence, the Admiral who was named by The Duck on that tape,
was dismissed from his job, and detained.
But the two men we talked to insist that the trail
doesn't stop with the Admiral. One of them said he was told
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personally by The Duck that the murder of Henry Liu was approved
at still a higher level.
Congressman Stephen Solarz is Chairman of the House
Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs.
REP. STEPHEN SOLARZ: Henry Liu was not just killed by
some members of the Bamboo Gang who got it into their heads, for
their own purposes, to blow him away. They were retained,
commissioned, instructed, and dispatched to the United States by
the Bureau of Military Intelligence for the purpose, in my
judgment, of silencing Henry Liu by ending his life. That's
murder and it's assassination and it's not acceptable, and it was
set in motion by the authorities on Taiwan. And I don't think it
really matters much to what degree all of the members of the
Cabinet or the Politburo or the Kuomintang knew about this or
approved it. A powerful, responsible, important, leading
official of the Taiwanese intelligence agencies was instru-
mentally involved in the whole affair. And that means the
government of Taiwan was involved in the affair.
SAWYER: And now the story has taken yet another bizarre
twist. Taiwan now hints that Henry Liu was not just a journa-
list, but one of their spies. U.S. officials say not only that,
Henry Liu also appears to have been in contact with the communist
government in Peking. And furthermore, they confirmed Henry Liu
was an informant for us, for the FBI.
Was Henry Liu an agent of the government of Taiwan?
DR. CHUN KING-YEH: I have no knowledge of it.
SAWYER: Dr. Chun King-yeh (?), the chief spokesman for
the Taiwan government.
What did the government of Taiwan think about the things
CHUN KING-YEH: Well, he has the freedom to write
whatever he wishes to write.
SAWYER: But not to have it published in Taiwan.
CHUN KING-YEH: Well, he is now overseas. He's an
SAWYER: But you're telling me that his book was not
banned in Taiwan, that I could go in a bookstore in Taiwan and
find this critical biography of the President?
CHUN KING-YEH: Well, his book did not come to Taiwan,
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shall we say this. Because any foreign book, or particularly
magazines, books, they would have to have some kind of permission
to get in.
SAWYER: And it was not permitted for Henry Liu?
CHUN KING-YEH: Obviously, probably that's the case.
SAWYER: Right after the murder of Henry Liu, your
government stated emphatically it was involved, threatened to sue
people who said that it was involved.
CHUN KING-YEH: Well, the government is not involved.
SAWYER: The government is not involved?
CHUN KING-YEH: Is not involved. Who says the govern-
ment is involved? We...
SAWYER: The man who planned the murder of Henry Liu
says the government is involved. You have gone to the length
even of detaining the head of your Defense Intelligence Office.
That's not the government?
CHUN KING-YEH: That's not the government.
SAWYER: What is the exact status of Vice Admiral Wong,
the Admiral in defense intelligence? Is he a suspect?
CHUN KING-YEH: He is not a suspect.
SAWYER: But he has been named on the tape. He's been
named by The Duck.
CHUN KING-YEH: Well, if you are named on any particular
tape, will you be a suspect?
SAWYER: Admiral Wong is a free man, then, pending this
investigation?
CHUN KING-YEH: I think the three suspects, or three
persons involved in this particular case are being detained
pending investigation.
CHUN KING-YEH: Detained means that temporarily they
have lost freedom.
SAWYER: They're in jail.
CHUN KING-YEH: Not in jail, because when you talk about
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jail. . .
SAWYER: House arrest? I mean what are you...
CHUN KING-YEH: In other words, they have lost their
freedom, in essence. I can only say that, because they are not
in jail.
SAWYER: But isn't it an odd coincidence that the
government only seemed to find out things after they were going
to be revealed someplace else?
CHUN KING-YEH: I don't think so. That's not the case.
Because we provide the information to the United States authori-
ties. That's where you have a breakthrough of the case.
SAWYER: But the U.S. authorities say something quite
different. They say, the State Department says they had to put
intense pressure on your government to get your government to
move on this case.
CHUN KING-YEH: My story is different. I think we have
to get the sequence correct.
SAWYER: Well, I think the Daly City police would tell
you the sequence is quite different.
CHUN KING-YEH: They can have their version, and I have
SAWYER: But it's really still a puzzle, isn't it?
We're still hearing that he was shot because he was a communist
agent, he was shot because he was a Taiwan agent, he was shot
because he was an FBI agent, he was shot because he was writing a
book, he was shot because he had information he was going to
write in yet another book that hadn't been published.
So, at this stage, what do you really know about who
shot Henry Liu and why?
REESE: We know who shot Henry Liu. As to why? I still
don't know. And I don't know if I'll ever know.
MORLEY SAFER: Diane Sawyer is now on assignment. Just
after she left, the Taiwan government indicted The Duck and the
two gunmen for murder, and will try them in Taiwan.
Taiwan also admitted that The Duck was an agent of
Taiwan's Military Intelligence Bureau, but insisted he was not
ordered by Admiral Wong or anyone else to kill Henry Liu. But
we've learned that The Duck intimated to U.S. authorities that at
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the trial he will name even more prominent people than Admiral
Wong as being involved.
The FBI and the State Department still won't talk on the
record about the murder or the allegations that Henry Liu was an
informant for the FBI or anyone else. And the U.S. government
says the murder of Henry Liu will not change plans to sell Taiwan
$750 million in military equipment this year.
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