TAIWANESE STUDENTS BRING FIERCE RIVALRIES TO U.S. CAMPUSES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100030117-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 117
• Publication Date: March 8, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100030117-8
A':i'"ICLE PPE--.I
.~~ rls
O FA 0,
J
Taiz vanese,"Students
Bring FierceRivalries
To U. S. Campuses
Some Say Spies From Taipei
Follow Their Every Move;
Threats,-Trials, Jail Terms
By Doxorr P. Lgvirr--
Staff Reporterof Ti z Wwt.t, Spar JovRVwL
Last June, Chen Wen-cheng, a professor
at Carnegie-:Mellon University in Pittsburgh,
returned to his native Taiwan to visit his
parents. During his visit he was summoned
to an interview by the Taiwan Garrison
Command, one of the country's internal-se-
curity agencies. Shortly after a 13-hour in-
terrogation, the body of the 31-year-old pro-
fessor was found at the base of a building on
the campus of National Taiwan University
in Taipei.
That much is undisputed fact. The cause
of the professor's death, however, Is a topic
of considerable controversy. According to
press reports in. Taiwan at the time, the Tai-
wanese government said that Prof. Chen
was escorted safely home by its agents fol-
lowing the interview and only after that
either jumped or fell from the sixth-floor
balcony of the campus building- But the pro-
fessor's family and friends maintain that he
was murdered by government agents;
what's more, they say the murder was in re-
taliation for Prof. Chen's dissident activi-
ties, which, they add, were reported to Tai-
pei by government spies.. on the Carnegie;
Mellon campus.
Richard Cyert , Carnegie-Melton's. presi-
dent, Isn't sure who is responsible for' his
faculty member's death. In September,
largely at his own expense, he dispatched a
pathologist and a CMU professor to-Taipei,
.but their Investigation concluded only that
'Prof. Chen'was a homicide victim: Nonethe-.'
less, Mr. Cyert sent a stiffly worded tele-'
grant to Chiang Chin; kuo, Taiwan's presi-
dent, deploring the surveillance ' of Tai-
wanese students in the U.S. He also 'stab-
lished a hot line enabling ,C~MUs'several
hundred Taiwanese students to report anon,
ymously any threats they receive.
Acts of 'Vandalism
U.S. colleges and universities currently,
enroll some 20,000 students from Taiwan. It
is a group that Is divided; and the division,
aggravated by incidents such as the death of
Prof. Chen, has recently gone beyond the po-
litical disputes that occasionally crop up In
many foreign-student communities. Instead
of debates and demonstrations, there have
been acts Of vandalism and charges of har-
assment and surveillance by foreign agents
on U.S. campuses. U.S.: Congressmen have
even gotten involved, some of them saying
that what .Is*.:happening among the. Tai-
wanese students here raises questions about
future U.S. relations with the Taipei govern-
ment. r
r ,ALL S T E T J0,`!` AL
8 'March 1982
The dispute dates from 19j'r, when
Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang, or
IMIT; party were forced off mainland China
by the Communists. Chiang's followers fled
to nearby Taiwan and, though a minority,
took control of the island. But many
Tai-
wanese natives, most of whom were close
ethnic cousins of the mainlanders, came to
resent the KMT dominance and particularly
the imposition of martial lap (which re=
mains in effect today).
As the years went by, the children of the
two 'groups-the 131T. adherents calling
i themselves Chinese; the others. Taiwanese
-continued the feud. Some exported it when
they came to the U.S. to complete their uni-
versity education. Since the 1960s, students
from Taiwan enrolled at Cornell, the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology, the Univer-
sity of, California, the University.of Michi-
gan and dozens of other schools have com-
plained of spying and harassment by fellow
students (the Chinese faction) who allegedly
draw Taiwanese government pay for their
activities.
Prison Sentence
Those who believe that they have been
spied upon contend that information about
what they say, what they read and with
whom they associate is sent back to Taipei.
They further maintain that, based on such
.reports, the Taiwanese government has
tried some former U.S. students for sedition
and denied passports and visas to others,
forcing them back home.
Some mention the case of Rita Yeh, for-
merly a student at the University of Minne=
r sota. Miss Yeh Is currently serving a 14-
,year prison sentence in Taiwan. During her
trial on charges of spying for the People's
Republic of China, the prosecutor reportedly
introduced evidence that was gathered at
the Minnesota campus.
Ivan Wang, a spokesman for the Taiwan
government, says: "My government has
neither the intent nor the means to spy on
more than 60,000 Chinese students, scholars
or professionals from Taiwan, who are
either studying or settling in (the U.S.)." As
for charges that the government harasses
dissident students, Mr. Wang says, "If they
'
aren
t doing anything related to the over-
throw of their country, they have-nothing to
fear." .
Caught in the middle, U.S. university offi-
cials say there is little they-can do in the ab-
isence ofprooi that a crime was committed
;on their campuses. "It's.very difficult to ac-
tually prove or disprove that there is Kuom-
intang surveillance," says C. Peter Mc-
Grath, the president -of the University of
Minnesotaywhich.has a large student popu.
lation from Taiwan. "I'm very concerned
that there is a climate of Intimidation and
I ve"made exhortations, but I don't know
-what good they do."
If nothing- else, the death of Carnegie-
Mellon's Prof. Chen heightened the tension
between the two student groups. Prior to his
laast.visit-to Taipei, the professor hadalleg
emocracy, and better ecor c and polio- 1)
cal opportunities for the native Taiwanese
majority on the island. Such Ideas get a re
ceptive hearing from many Taiwanese when
th
ey arrive in this country.
"Compared to where they've come from.
Taiwanese students in the U.S. suddenly find
themselves in a free atmosphere," explains
Donald Sutton, a Carnegie-Meiion professor
and specialist in Chinese history. "Inevi-
tably they talk about politics and some of
that talk Is anti-government-"
But on some campuses, the professor's
death precipitated more than talk. At Ohio
State University, several cars belonging to
pro-Kuomintang students were daubed with
sulphuric acid soon after news of the teach-
er's fate circulated. Posters appeared de-
manding that KMT "spies" leave campus,
and an article in a student newspaper
quoted a
nonymous Taiwanese students who
blamed their government for Mr. Chen's
death.
Fang Wei-thou, the president of the.pr -
government Chinese Students Association gat
Ohio State, blames anti-government Tai-
wanese for the vandalism. University police
haven't found the culprits, but when Mr.
Fang organized a group to send a letter to
the student paper supporting the govern-
ment of Taiwan, Ohio State officials acted.
Mr. Fang says he and other leaders of'the
rival groups were called to a meeting at
which university officials told them that
vandalism and other violations of the stu-
d
t
en
code could result in expulsion.
The professor's death also had repercus,
sions in the U.S. House of Representatives.
At a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee
hearing called last October to investigate
possible illegal activities by Taiwan's agents
in the U
S
R
.
.,
ep- Jim Leach, an Iowa Re=
publican, called Prof. Chen's death "one of
the most unfortunate Incidents to occur in
the-recent history of U.S.-Taiwan Taiwan relations."
The Congressman is one of several In the
Vouse who blame the Chiang Chin
g-kuo gov-
ernment for spying on U.S.
campuses; and
ije sought, unsuccessfully, to block the sale.
If U.S. amps to Taiwan until that govern-
ment assured the U.S. that campus spying
it this country was stopped.
De-
partment aLeach also nd the Federal critithe cized
of Justice
Invess
gration for declining his call to investigate
Prof, Chen's death and to look i
Ion of student spies. rto the ques.
-The department had
eesponded that it and the FBI weren't re-
sponsible for investigating such matters- ff
Law-enforcement agencies are 'inter
fisted, however, in keeping tabs on some of
the more radical factions on the fringes of
`.
{he two groups. One such faction goes be.
fond the
ti
an
-K--MT sentiments of many Tai-
tvanese and advocates the overthrow of the
island
government. It is that- group .that is
-suspected by California authorities of carry-
ing out a wave of b
ombings in the Los Ange-
esarea nearly two years ago.
edly been Involved in raising money for For-
mosa magazine, a publication in Taiwan
that advocates an end to martial law, more
. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
2010/09/02: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100030117-8