The family of professor Chen Wen-cheng (
Chen's death, together with the murders of former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung's (
Since Chen was, at the time of his death, an assistant professor at a US university, his demise attracted international attention.
Concerned that any interview might unduly influence the lawsuit, Chen's older sister, Chen Pao-yueh (陳寶月), who filed the suit, declined to discuss the case. But according to Chinese-language media, her family has sought an explanation from the government for 20 years.
Their father, Chen Ting-mao (陳庭茂), had wished to discover the facts surrounding Chen's death before he died.
The family had expected that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who often spoke of Chen's case during his campaign to become a Taipei City councilor in 1981, would help after he took office, but, disappointed, they decided to act by themselves.
One of Chen Pao-yueh's attorneys, Lee Sheng-hsiung (
"We expect to learn more information about Chen's death from the five defendants' accounts and TGGH materials obtained through the prosecutor's investigation," Lee said.
Chen had been a vocal critic of the KMT government at Taiwanese student union meetings in the US, which brought him to the attention of the government.
Government officials claimed that he had admitted setting up 10 foundations in the US to raise money for Formosa magazine, a dissident journal, but Chen's friends were doubtful of the claim.
Chen's body was found at National Taiwan University on the morning of July 3, 1981, after the TGGH had interrogated him.
The body had thirteen broken ribs, a broken spine and numerous other internal and external injuries consistent with his having been severely beaten.
A US forensic pathologist, Cyril Wecht, who traveled to Taiwan to investigate the case, concluded that Chen's death was caused by being dropped from the fifth floor fire escape of the university research library while unconscious and that his death was a homicide.
The garrison headquarters initially claimed that Chen had committed suicide because he feared being arrested for his crimes, but changed its account the following day, saying he had died in an accident. Chen's family and friends, however, refuse to believe that Chen would commit suicide.
Chen was an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the US, and his death attracted much attention and pressure from the international community.
Republican congressman Jim Leach proposed a congressional investigation into Taiwanese espionage in the US.
The State Department held investigative hearings in July and August, 1981. The president of Carnegie Mellon University, Richard Cyert, sent a message to the president at the time, Chiang Ching-Kuo (
Professors and presidential advisors who experienced the martial law period insist that the truth behind miscarriages of justice must be revealed and the government should apologize to and compensate victims.
Huang Chao-tang (
The government actually started work on redress for victims of miscarriages of justice during the martial law period when the Legislative Yuan passed a regulation providing for compensation in 1998. But the current administration has not taken up the matter.
Compensation had already been paid in 2,786 cases to the end of June this year. It requires the victim to have been interrogated and detained for at least one day.
Chen's case, however, doesn't qualify since he wasn't detained.
Huang criticized the criteria, saying, "Not only can Chen's case not be counted, there are a lot of victims who were just arrested and beaten without record. How can they be compensated?"
In 1994, the Control Yuan started a further investigation into Chen's death, but, concluding that the case was a criminal case, decided that it did not have the jurisdiction to investigate it and transferred it to the Ministry of Justice.
"From the investigation, we found a couple of suspicious points about his death, such as the body was found too close to the building from which he allegedly jumped, and his injuries didn't look like injuries resultant from a fall, as the postmortem report stated," said Chou Jung-yao (趙榮耀), a member of the Control Yuan committee which investigated the case.
"Investigation of these points, however, is a matter for a criminal investigation, which we didn't have the right to conduct," Chou said.
Hsieh Tsung-min (謝聰敏), an advisor to the president and the justice ministry -- and also a victim of the white terror -- said that the Control Yuan couldn't have discovered anything new without the right to conduct a criminal investigation.
"The Control Yuan can't really do a good job of an investigation without jurisdiction. The justice ministry is the organization that could investigate these unsolved cases, but as an advisor to the justice ministry, [I can tell you that] the ministry doesn't have the resources to investigate all of these cases.
"The victims and their families can take action through the judicial process, which I think is the best way," Hsieh said.
Auckland rang in 2026 with a downtown fireworks display launched from New Zealand’s tallest structure, Sky Tower, making it the first major city to greet the new year at a celebration dampened by rain, while crowds in Taipei braved the elements to watch Taipei 101’s display. South Pacific countries are the first to bid farewell to 2025. Clocks struck midnight in Auckland, with a population of 1.7 million, 18 hours before the famous ball was to drop in New York’s Times Square. The five-minute display involved 3,500 fireworks launched from the 240m Sky Tower. Smaller community events were canceled across New Zealand’s
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
‘SLICING METHOD’: In the event of a blockade, the China Coast Guard would intercept Taiwanese ships while its navy would seek to deter foreign intervention China’s military drills around Taiwan this week signaled potential strategies to cut the nation off from energy supplies and foreign military assistance, a US think tank report said. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted what it called “Justice Mission 2025” exercises from Monday to Tuesday in five maritime zones and airspace around Taiwan, calling them a warning to “Taiwanese independence” forces. In a report released on Wednesday, the Institute for the Study of War said the exercises effectively simulated blocking shipping routes to major port cities, including Kaohsiung, Keelung and Hualien. Taiwan would be highly vulnerable under such a blockade, because it
RSS