Taiwan Probing Link to Murder : Intelligence Officials Tied to Death of Writer in U.S.

As Taiwan President Chiang Ching-kuo personally ordered an investigation of involvement of government intelligence officials in connection with the murder of controversial journalist Henry Liu near here, calls mounted Wednesday in this country for a congressional investigation of the case.

And pressing the murder probe itself, Daly City police and FBI agents were preparing to fly to Taiwan next week to interview reputed underworld figure Chen Chi-li, the suspected gunman in the killing who is in custody there.

Liu, 52, emigrated to the United States in 1967 from Taiwan, and wrote articles and a book critical of the Nationalist Chinese government there. Since his murder last Oct. 15 in the garage of his Daly City home, Liu’s family and friends have termed it a political assassination masterminded by the Taiwanese government in retaliation for Liu’s writings.

Although Taiwan representatives in the U.S. have denied government involvement in the murder, evidence has mounted this week of complicity by Taiwanese security forces.

And on Wednesday, Taiwan President Chaing ordered a special investigation into the links between government officials and Chen Chi-li.

Government officials, who spoke on condition they not be identified, told Associated Press that the 75-year-old president was furious during a meeting of the standing committee of the governing Kuomintang party. “The big boss was very mad,” one government official said.

In what was described as a major political scandal in Taiwan, Chen Hu-men, acting director of a branch of the military intelligence bureau of the Defense Ministry, was among at least three security officials detained in connection with the Liu case.

Chen Hu-men and Chen Chi-li met several times before Chen Chi-li, reputed head of the United Bamboo gang, left for the United States on a business trip last fall. The two also met upon Chen Chi-li’s return to Taipei Oct. 22, a week after Liu’s murder, according to press reports from Taipei.

Victor Chang, a spokesman for Taiwan in Los Angeles, said his understanding was that Chen Hu-men had used Chen Chi-li as an informant in the past, and that Chen Chi-li told the officer that “he would be doing something over here. . . . He would kill somebody here.”

“But he (Chen Hu-men) did not know the target would be Henry Liu,” Chang said, adding that “whoever is involved, whatever their rank, they will be brought to justice.”

Two, and possibly three, other officials of the intelligence agency also were detained. The agency’s charge is to develop and collect information about the military capabilities of foreign nations.

The bureau’s director, Adm. Wang Shi-ling, has been suspended. Wang had been the top military representative of Taiwan in Washington in 1979 when diplomatic relations between the two nations were severed.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Alan Romberg expressed confidence that Taiwan authorities were handling the situation properly.

“If the Taiwan authorities fired him, if they are taking disciplinary actions, it seems like they are acting properly in the case,” Romberg said.

He rejected suggestions that the intelligence officials now in custody were scapegoats to mask further government involvement. He said Taiwan authorities “expressed concern about the possible involvement of one of their services in a murder.”

Also Wednesday, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) called for a congressional inquiry into the killing. A similar call was made by Rep. Norman Mineta (D-San Jose).

“The involvement of officials of a foreign government in such acts is reprehensible and requires immediate and forceful action on the part of our government,” Lantos said in a letter to Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asian and Pacific affairs.

An aide to Lantos said hearings most likely would be held this year, but added “it is too early to tell” whether there would be calls for sanctions, such as a curtailment of agreements with Northrop to co-produce F-5 fighters for Taiwan.

A murder warrant for Chen Chi-li has been issued in the Liu case, but the United States and Taiwan have no formal diplomatic ties, and thus no extradition treaty. Nonetheless, Taiwan has agreed to allow U.S. law enforcement officials to interview Chen Chi-li and an associate, Wu Tun, also suspected but not charged in the murder. Lt. Tom Reese of the Daly City Police Department said he expects to spend four or five days in Taiwan next week.

He added that he thinks there is little chance that Taiwan would extradite government officials if they turn out to be involved.

“We’ve got a murder warrant for Chen Chi-li, and they’ve refused to extradite him. I’m being realistic. I just can’t see them turning over officials,” Reese said.