Book suggests Yin aimed to obstruct arms purchase deal

A recently-published book sheds new light on the murder of navy Captain Yin Ching-feng (尹清楓) in 1992. According to the book, Yin and his arms-broker friends had tried to obstruct the navy from buying an underwater-weapons system that the navy planned to purchase from a German company.

The navy had planned to buy a remotely controlled mine-hunter system known as Pinguin, which was used by four German-made mine-sweepers the navy purchased in 1991, Tu Cheng Chun-chu (涂鄭春菊) says in her newly-published book Surfacing: Mysteries about the Yin Ching-feng case.

Tu is considered a key witness in the Yin case because she was the person Yin planned to visit before he was murdered. Tu also had frequent contact with Yin over arms-purchase affairs in the days prior to his murder. Tu then represented a German arms manufacturer negotiating with the Taiwan navy over a spare parts deal her company had with the navy.

With the publication of her book, Tu tried to clear herself of suspicion in connection with the Yin case.

While the book does not provide enough objective evidence to do this, it does point out some suspicious points Tu discovered during her negotiations with the navy.

Tu says in the book that she cannot understand why the navy initially desperately wanted the Pinguin but later became hesitant.

The navy had then already signed a contract with Tu's company for the Pinguin purchase, but it became uncooperative after Tu's company asked the navy to provide the necessary documents for her company to apply for an export license from the German government, the book says.

Captain Yin, then director of the navy's procurement office, tried to ignore Tu's request for the documents by saying he could not obtain them, according to the book.

Tu waited for an answer from Yin for a week about the documents but the wait was vain. Tu then called Yin to handle her request immediately -- threatening to make the case public if her demand was not met. Yin sent a retired naval official, who was then an agent for the Pinguin's German manufacturer, to negotiate with Tu over the case.

Tu's German company, though not the manufacturer of the Pinguin, won the contract to provide Taiwan's navy with the spare parts for the four German-made mine-sweepers.

Yin's move made Tu suspect that the captain might be secretly helping the agent for the Pinguin manufacturer and that the two might be attempting to talk her out of the deal.

Tu asked for help from then lawmaker Ju Gao-jeng (朱高正), who had studied in Germany. With Ju's help, Tu made the navy leaders understand how the Pinguin was handled by their subordinates.

Tu, however, failed to provide any evidence in her book as to why Captain Yin was murdered.