Suit Alleging Taiwan Government Plot to Kill Man Dismissed

After an out-of-court settlement, the Supreme Court has dismissed a case stemming from a $300-million lawsuit by a California woman who said the Taiwanese government plotted her husband’s 1984 murder.

The justices had been asked by lawyers for both sides to drop the case, in which Taiwan’s government had argued that American courts lack the authority to hear such a suit.

Helen Liu of Daly City had contended in her suit that the government of Taiwan, formally named the Republic of China, “carefully orchestrated” a cover-up of a “terrorist plan and scheme” to silence her husband, Henry Liu.

Gerard Harper, a lawyer for Helen Liu, said the Supreme Court case was dropped after she and the government of Taiwan reached a settlement in which the government admitted no wrongdoing but paid her an amount of money.

Harper said the size of the payment is confidential.

Born in China, Henry Liu fled to Taiwan in 1949. He emigrated to the United States in 1967. He was gunned down at his home by members of the Bamboo Union, a crime group based in Taiwan. Gang leader Chen Chi-li confessed to plotting Liu’s murder and implicated two government officials.