1987 Lieyu massacre

The 1987 Lieyu massacre was preceded by an incident where a young couple from mainland China swam to Dadan Island seeking asylum in late 1984. At that time, all the islets of the Kinmen Archipelago were considered as war zones under Martial Law, which was to allow the Republic of China (Taiwan) to prevent an attack by the People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China.[3] The commanding Major-general of the Dadan Defense Team (大膽守備隊), Premier Deputy Division Commander of the 158 Lieyu Division (烈嶼師), received the couple and escorted them to the superior Kinmen Defense Command (金防部) on the Field army level, but was immediately relieved of his post by the Commander General Song Hsin-lian (宋心濂上將) for violating the directive to "Accept no surrender in the war zone".[4]

As a result, the commander of the neighboring Erdan Island (二膽守備隊), Deputy Brigade Commander of the 473 Brigade, lieutenant-colonel Zhong, summoned all the soldiers to reiterate the order that "Whoever lands on the island must be executed without exception". Soon after this statement, he was exceptionally promoted to the position of 472 Nantang Brigade Commander (南塘旅), taking charge of all the units in the South Lieyu Defense Team (烈嶼南守備隊), whereas General Song was promoted as the Director of National Security Bureau back to Taipei in December, 1985.

In August 1986, the new Kinmen Defense Commander, General Zhao Wan-fu (趙萬富上將; Zhào Wànfù)[5] instructed the 158 Division Commander, Major-general Gong Li (龔力少將) to construct 2 propaganda walls, with a slogan proclaiming "Three Principles of the People Unify China" facing the international seaway of Xiamen Bay, whereas Xi Jinping was the Deputy Mayor of Xiamen City - one on Dadan; the other on Erdan.[6]

At noon on 28 February 1987, one week before the Lieyu massacre, a local Chinese fishing boat crossed Xiamen Bay. It was intensely fired upon until it caught fire near Dadan. The fishermen on board waved a white cloth in an attempt to communicate their surrender. However, the boat was sunk by tank gun shots ordered by the new Dadan commander, Major-general Chien Yi-hu (錢奕虎少將) after receiving the approval of General Zhao.[7] There was only one survivor, who swam to cling onto a rock nearby, but who was eventually lost to the rising tides.[8]

In the morning of 7 March 1987, a boat carrying Vietnamese refugees who had been rejected in Hong Kong earlier arrived in Kinmen requesting political asylum. Kinmen Defense Commander, General Zhao rejected the request, and ordered a patrol boat of the Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion (ARB-101, 海龍蛙兵) to tow away the boat from the shore with a warning not to return. However, for reasons unclear, the information about the boat's presence in the Southern sea was never forwarded to the front line of the coastal defense units, including those in the Lieyu island.

As a seasonal heavy fog appeared on the coast and gradually turned clear in the afternoon, the Vietnamese boat was sighted off the south shore at 16:37. The local 1st Dashanding Infantry Battalion (大山頂營) Commander Major Liu, the 472 Brigade Commander Colonel Zhong and the 158 Division G3 Chief Operation Officer (參三科科長) Colonel arrived at the scene with staff officers. Warning shots, followed by expelling shots, then destroying shots as per the procedure steps of Army Rule of Engagement were fired by the ROC military, but the Vietnamese boat was stranded on the sand beach south-west of Donggang (Dōnggāng) Fishery Port (Fort L-05), a sensitive strategic point in front of a mobile M30 mortar position with the communication center nicknamed "04" (homonym to 'You die' in Chinese pronunciation) on hill with a 30-degree angle of blind corner on radar screen by the steep landform in front of the classified 240 mm howitzer M1 (aka. "Black Dragon" or "Nuclear Cannon") rail-gun positions of Kinmen Defense Command, and the 155/105 mm combined artillery battalions of 158 Division.[9] It was hit by crossfire and two M72 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapon) rounds by the WPN Company in reinforcement. Armor-piercing shells penetrated through the sky-blue wooden hull without detonation. Three unarmed Vietnamese men jumped off the boat, raised their hands, and pled in Chinese, "Don't shoot...!" but were all shot dead instantly.[10]

The local 3rd Dongang Company (東崗連) Commander, Captain Zhang, received the order from the brigade commander to dispatch a search team boarding the boat. Two hand grenades were thrown into the boat, then found that all the passengers were Vietnamese refugees with no weapon on board. The passengers said that the vessel had experienced a mechanical failure. Because of the heavy fog, the strong seasonal currents and the rising tide since late afternoon, the boat drifted into the open bay. The surviving passengers and the bodies of the dead were taken out of the boat and placed on the beach, with neither first aid nor any life support supply rendered. Followed by intense telecommunication with the Division Headquarter (DHQ), the commanders at the scene received orders from their superiors - alleged directly by Commander General Zhao - to execute the passengers to eliminate all the eyewitnesses. Some received multiple shots ,when one bullet was not enough to kill them. Among the bodies piled were elderly people, women, one pregnant woman, children, and a baby in a sweater.[11][12]

In the morning 09:00 of 8 March 1987, the Medical Platoon of the Battalion Headquarter (BHQ) Company was called in to bury all the bodies at the beach. The platoon members were ordered to execute any surviving refugees. The wounded were buried alive, and those who were still moving or crying were dictated to be killed by military shovels.[13] The entire boat was also instructed to be burned down aside from the only 3-blade propeller non-flammable to gasoline, then all buried in sand to destroy all the evidence right away. The last victim, a little boy being hidden underneath a board cell was also found and executed by order without exception. The guarding sergeant of the BHQ company overnight counted the bodies as more than nineteen.[14]

Since some medics defied the direct order of victim execution, brigade commander Zhong instructed the Nantang Brigade Headquarter (RHQ) Company commander captain leading 1/3 soldiers to take over the Battalion headquarter and the BHQ company as the emergency measure to maintain order. Later that day, a real fishing boat from China approached the coast attempting to check out what happened. It was also shot to destroy, and sunk in the open sea with 4 confirmed kills to assure all lips sealed - which some veterans later called the "March 8 Incident".[15]

Ten weeks later, the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Chiang Ching-kuo, reacted to concealment of the massacre by the 158 Division and the Kinmen Defense Command. General Zhao Wan-fu, said he was unaware of the event. While being questioned by the Chief of the General Staff (參謀總長), Superior-general Hau Pei-tsun on 20 May, General Zhao still lied: "It was just a couple of 'Communist soldiers' (referring to the penetration of People's Liberation Army) being shot in the water", but Zhao's statement was obviously unbelievable. Then Superior-general Hau ordered to move the corpses from the beach to a remote hidden slope in front of Fort L-03 (East Cape) on the right, filled with cement and built a concrete training wall on top of it as the military property to prevent any future investigation. The corpses remain sealed in the final place of the third scene with no mark today.[16]

The native store owner heard the crying of refugees overnight and made a phone call to inform the National Assembly member, Huang Chao-hui in Kaohsiung, but the contact was soon lost whereas all civilian and public long-distance phone calls being also routinely monitored by the Communication Supervision Section of Kinmen Defense Command.[17] Nevertheless, the bodies were not buried deeply on the first scene. Influenced by tidal seawater and high temperatures, the bodies soon began to decompose and were dug out by wild dogs from the landfill (小金垃圾場) on the back side of the western hill, hence required to be reburied to the higher ground (the second scene) collectively in 3 mounds next to the above tree line nearby. The task was performed by the 1st Company just returned posts ironically after won the annual Army Physical and Combat Competitions in Taiwan same as before. Accounts of ghost sightings prompted villagers to hold religious ceremonies, making it all the more difficult to block the news.[18]

In early May 1987, British Hong Kong newspapers first reported the massacre.[19] Informed by the overseas office, higher officials questioned the Kinmen Defense Command but got no concrete response; instead, the Command swapped this coast defense battalion from the front line with another reserve battalion in the training base in urgency in order to strengthen the personnel control and communication restriction to prevent further leaking news, and their unit designation codes were also shifted for the following 2 years to confuse outsiders. Twice of "extra bonus" cash summing up to half a month of a captain's salary, $6,000 were also abnormally awarded to the company commanders against the government regulation and ethics on the eve of Dragon boat festival.[20] Until the end of May, recently discharged conscript soldiers from Kinmen began to arrive in Taiwan Proper by the term schedule and finally able to appeal to the newly founded opposition party, Democratic Progressive Party. The information of the massacre started to spread in Taiwan.[21]

As a key witness at the DHQ Situation Room (師部戰情室) when the massacre occurred for the investigation by the end of May, the Chief Intelligence Officer of 158 Division G2 (參二科科長), Lieutenant-colonel Xu Lai (徐萊中校), mysteriously disappeared after a supervision task over a company-level night patrol and checkpoints, same to another non-commissioned officer at post within a week. Their bodies were never found.[22]

On 5 June 1987, Independence Evening Post was the first Taiwanese newspaper reporting the massacre with the formal questioning by the newly elected Parliament Member (and future First Lady) Wu Shu-chen, along with PM Chang Chun-hsiung and PM Kang Ning-hsiang from the Democratic Progressive Party to the Ministry of National Defense during the general assembly of Legislative Yuan. Her questions were repeatedly denied by the Military Spokesman, Major-general Zhang Hui Yuan (張慧元少將), who accused the Congresswoman, Mme. Wu of "sabotaging the national reputation", and claimed it was actually "a Chinese fishing boat being sunk in the sea after ignoring the warnings".[23] The uniformed propaganda was broadcast in the evening news on all public TV channels that night, and since next morning on 6 June, all local newspapers received the government instructions to publicize the press release of the Central News Agency originated from the Military News Agency (軍聞社).

The case was classified as military secret ever since for 20 years to prevent any further leaking information or the prosecution will apply.[24] The following media reports were censored and the publication were banned by the Nationalist government. Eventually when the police broke into the Freedom Era Weekly (自由時代周刊, which had publicized the case interviews and editorials before) magazine office for arrest with another count of Treason charge in April, 1989, Editor-in-chief, Cheng Nan-jung set himself on fire then died in blaze to protest for the freedom of speech. Military Journalist Zhang You-hua (張友驊) of Independence Evening Post on the other hand was sentenced to 1 year and 7 months with a probation period of 3 years in November 1991.

The official cover-up story of the Chinese fishing boat sunk by one shell of bombardment applied to the public for 13 years, until being uncovered by the publication of «8-year Diary of the Chief of the General Staff (1981-1989)» (八年參謀總長日記) by Superior-general Hau in 2000.[25] The Government of the Republic of China has made no comment thereafter.

After the scandal was exposed, President Chiang Ching-kuo received a letter from Amnesty International expressing humanitarian concern, and assigned the Chief of General Staff, Superior-general Hau, to investigate this case. The Minister of National Defense, Cheng Wei-yuan also arrived in Kinmen, who dispatched a special envoy of the Political Warfare Bureau to conduct the field investigation with excavation discovering the civilian cadavers and eventually solved the criminal case on 23 May. On 28 May, the Military Police began to detain over 30 officers back to Taiwan to court-martial, including the commanders, corresponding political officers and related staff officers along the 5 levels on the chain of command, whereas 45 officers received the administrative sanction of dishonored transfer.[26] Later on 14 July, Minister Cheng also endorsed the historical decree of President Chiang to end the notorious 38-year-long Martial law ruling period (1948-1987) in Taiwan, except the War Zone Administration (戰地政務) on the frontier regions including Kinmen and Matsu Islands remained under the military governing till 7 November 1992.[27] President Chiang further lifted the ban on the divided family members across the Strait to visit their families in China by allowing transfer through a third place, such as Hong Kong, Okinawa or Tokyo, on 2, November.[28]

In October 1987, Brigade Commander Zhong was sentenced to 1 year and 10 months for abetting murders; Battalion Commander Major Liu was sentenced to 1 year and 10 months for being an accomplice to serial murders; WPN and 3rd Company commanders, Captain Li and Captain Zhang, both were sentenced to 1 year and 8 months for serial murders - but all the sentences were commuted with a probation period of 3 years, therefore none of the convicted field commanders was required to spend one day in the prison though under heavy pressure from the international society and media later, they stayed in rank with posts suspended to continue service without pay until the end of term before relocating to training officer positions; Brigade Commander Zhong took a senior lead colonel position in a military academy, Army Communication, Electronics and Information School. Their later regular retirement and pension plans were not affected.

The superior officers received no official punishment, and recovered their military career after President Chiang suddenly died in January, 1988.[29] Principal staff officer, Major-general Fan Jai-yu (范宰予少將) was promoted to the commander of the 210 Heavy Infantry Division of Hualien Expansion in 1989, then further ranked to Lieutenant-general, Commander of the Penghu Defense Command in 1994, and the Principal of the Political Warfare Cadres Academy in 1996; Division Commander, Major-general Gong Li was shifted to the Chief of Staff of the War College (戰爭學院), National Defense University, then promoted to the Deputy Commander of the Huadong Defense Command (花東防衛司令部) in 1992, and the Civil Level-12 Director of Banqiao District House (榮譽國民之家) of the Veterans Affairs Council in 2000; Kinmen Defense Commander Zhao was promoted to Deputy Chief Commander General of the Republic of China Army in 1989, and further to Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Republic of China Armed Forces in 1991; then appointed with honours as a Strategy Advisor (戰略顧問) to the President of the Republic of China in 2 terms, and then the permanent title as the Reviewer Member (中評委) of the Central Committee of the ruling party, Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) till his death on Feb. 28, 2016. His official funeral was proceeded with his coffin covered by the National Flag, the military salute of the top-ranked generals,[30] and Vice-president Wu Den-yih presenting the Commendation Decree of President Ma Ying-jeou, who praises Zhao's 50-year career in national security with so-called "loyalty, diligence, bravery, perseverance, intelligence, wisdom, insight and proficiency" (忠勤勇毅，才識閎通), whereas "His virtue and conducts have set a good example model for future generation to follow...." (武德景行，貽範永式... 逾五十載攄忠護民，越半世紀衛國干城，崇勛盛業，青史聿昭).[31]

The development of nuclear weapon program was eventually exposed by Colonel Chang Hsien-yi, Deputy Director of the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research at the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology defecting to the United States in January, 1988.[32][33] Over 100 years after its establishment in 1911, the Republic of China still doesn't have the Refugee Law today,[34][35] not to mention that the Government has never rendered an apology nor any legal compensation to the victim families or the victim country.[36][37]

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• Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Paris, 1948
• Third Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war, 1949
• Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 1949
• Protocol I relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, Geneva, 1977
• Protocol II relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts, Geneva, 1977
• Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Geneva, 1951
• Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, New York, 1967
• Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict, Geneva, 1974
• Declaration of the Rights of the Child, Geneva, 1959
• Convention on the Rights of the Child, New York, 1989
• Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, 1993
• Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 1998
• Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1968
• Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, 2017
• International humanitarian law, Customary international humanitarian law
• International human rights law, Jus ad bellum, Jus post bellum
• Universal value, Moral universalism, Cultural universal
• Crimes against humanity, Rule according to higher law
• Law of war, War crime, Lawfare
• Nuremberg principles, Nuremberg Charter
• Command responsibility, Superior orders
• Nulla poena sine lege, Opinio juris sive necessitatis
• Presumption of innocence, Natural justice, Duty of care
• Due process, Proportionality, Malpractice
• Kleptocracy, Deep state, White Terror (Taiwan)
• Chauvinism, Totalitarianism, Militarism
• Freedom of the press, Chilling effect, Culture of fear
• Indochina refugee crisis, Cross-Strait relations
• Min Ping Yu No. 5540 incident
• Min Ping Yu No. 5202

• Zheng Jing, Cheng Nan-jung, Ye Xiangzhi, Xu Manqing (1987-06-13). <Shocking inside story of the Kinmen Military Murder Case>. Freedom Era Weekly, Ver 175-176.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Hau Pei-tsun (2000-01-01). <8-year Diary of the Chief of the General Staff (1981-1989)>. Commonwealth Publishing. ISBN 9576216389.(in Chinese)
• Liu Wen-xiao (2007-05-20). <Special Reportage of 20th Memorial of Donggang Massacre in Little Quemoy>, "WPN Tactics Illustration", Ver. 32-38. «Wings of China» Publication.(in Chinese)
• Guan Ren-jian (2011-09-01). <The Taiwan you don't know: Stories of ROC Arm Forces>. Puomo Digital Publishing. ISBN 9789576636493.(in Chinese)
• "<The Military Eliminated Witnesses - Spokesman Denied for A Reason>". CTi News. 2013-08-04.(in Chinese)
• "<How to Answer Killing 3 Refugees by Mistake? Military Commanders Made the Decision>". CTi News. 2013-08-04.(in Chinese)
• Li Bo-han (2017-04-25). <Limitation of International Human Rights Law in the Eyes Cross the Borders: Refugees and Stateless People>. «Plain Laws».(in Chinese)
• Chiu Yi-ling (2019-02-03). "<Being Humans Anywhere: Refugee Cases and Related Mechanism in Taiwan>". Taiwan Association for Human Rights.(in Chinese)