HEARINGS BEFORE THE HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON ASIAN & PACIFIC AFFAIRS, RE MURDER OF HENRY LIU, TAIWANESE-AMERICAN CITIZEN, 15 OCTOBER 1984

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87M01152R000500620006-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 1, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: February 7, 1985
• Content Type: MEMO

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OLL 85-0662
7 February 1985
SUBJECT: Hearings Before the House Foreign Affairs Committee,
Subcommittee on Asian & Pacific Affairs, re Murder
of Henry Liu, Taiwanese-American Citizen, 15 October
1984
1. The Subcommittee convened at 1:30 p.m., on
7 February 1985, in Room 2172 Rayburn, to hold hearings on
the murder of Henry Liu, an American citizen of Chinese
descent, in Daly City, California, on 15 October 1984. The
following Members of the Subcommittee were present:
Stephen J. Solarz, Chairman (D., NY)
Mervyn Dymally (D., NY)
Robert G. Torrecelli (D., NJ)
Tom Lantos (D., CA)*
James Leach, Ranking Minority Member (R., IA)
Douglas K. Bereuter (R., NE)
Gerald B. H. Solomon (R., NY)
Toby Roth (R., WI)
The Hon. Norman Y. Mineta, Member of Congress**
The Hon. William Brown, Deputy Assistant Secretary
of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Mrs. Helena Liu, widow of Henry Liu
Professor Michael Glennon, University of Cincinnati
Law School, formerly Legal Counsel for the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.
*Mr. Lantos is not a Member of the Subcommittee, but was
invited because Mrs. Liu resides in his Congressional
district.
**Mr. Mineta was invited to testify because he is the most
senior House Member of Asian ancestry.
In Mr. Solarz' opening. statement he stated that the
purpose for the hearings was to determine whether:
a) the relevant agencies of the Executive Branch have
acted properly in trying to secure justice for Henry Liu, by
mounting a vigorous investigation and taking appropriate
diplomatic steps;
b) the murder of Henry Liu was an isolated incident or
only the most visible manifestation of a consistent pattern
of acts of intimidation or harassment; and
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c) the existing legal framework for restricting
illegitimate foreign agent activity is strong enough, or is
new legislation required to better protect the rights of
people within the territorial boundaries of the United States.
A copy of Mr. Solarz' opening statement is attached.
Mr. Leach read portion of his opening statement, stating
that the Congress expects the Taiwanese Government to
cooperate fully with the State Department and FBI officials
and failure to provide cooperation may force the Congress and
the Executive Branch to consider sanctions against Taiwan,
e.g., a cut-back in the number of CCNAA (Taiwan's
Coordination Council for North American Affairs) in the
United States, a withdrawal of all Taiwanese Government
personnel who may be part of the intelligence services
implicated in ordering the murder (of Henry Liu).
Mr. Solomon took note of all the criticisms being leveled
against Taiwan, whose government is friendly to the United
States, that he was not in sympathy with the undue criticism
of our allies: Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines or many
of our other friends; that no one criticizes the KGB here in
Washington or at the United Nations and elsewhere throughout
the country. "I would like to try to change the tone here."
He went on to say that it was being implied (at the Hearings)
that the Taiwanese Government was not cooperating, but that
he found they were going out of their way to cooperate.
Mr. Mineta, the first witness, began by commenting on
the murder of a Mr. Chen in Michigan and now the murder of
Mr. Henry Liu and implied a pattern of discrimination against
Americans of Asian ancestry in that their basic rights were
being violated and no apparent concern or action by the
Reagan Administration. He said that if a Polish-American
journalist were murdered in the United States by Polish
agents, the national outcry would be enormous, and the issue
would be raised at the highest levels. He cited a letter he
had written to Attorney General Smith about the murder of the
Taiwanese-American in Michigan stating that he believed this
Administration was not concerned with the most basic of human
rights of citizens. Mr. Mineta was not pleased with the
form-letter response from the Attorney General which simply
acknowledged receipt of his letter.
In concluding his remarks, Mr. Mineta emphasized his deep
concern with what was the apparent freedom of agents of
foreign governments to seek out and terrorize foreign
nationals (in the U.S.)--agents come here, do their dirty
work, and run back to their country where they claim
protection of the foreign nation's laws for behavior that
dishonors that nation.
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He will ask the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence to begin an intense investigation of this whole
matter.
Mr. Solarz responded that State Department has requested
the Taiwanese Government to return the individuals; and the
FBI conducted a vigorous investigation of the murder. What
precisely would he like to have the Administration do that
has not already been done with respect to this murder?
Mr. Mineta said he wanted the three individuals interviewed
(from Military Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense).
Mr. Solarz said he was not prepared to reach the conclusion
that this (murder) is a "consistent pattern of treatment of
Asian-Americans." Mr. Leach commented that it might be
premature to call for ending of arms sales.
Mr. Lantos asked that in light of Mr. Mineta's service on
the Intelligence Committee could he shed some light on the
rationale for the assassination of Mr. Liu: could his
writings have had an impact? Mr. Mineta said he did not
think he was in a position to indicate what the rationale
might have been and, frankly, even though the Intelligence
Committee had material and he looked at it over a period of
time while serving on the (HPSCI) he was not sure he was able
to indicate if it existed. Mr. Roth thanked Mr. Mineta for
his testimony, but added that he failed to see any connection
between the murder of Mr. Chen and Mr. Liu.
Mr. Mineta closed by saying that he himself, when he was
ten and one-half years of age, was put in a detention camp in
1942 and felt very strongly about this issue (of discrimina-
tion against Asian-Americans).
The next witness, The Honorable William Brown, Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific
Affairs, provided non-confidential information on the State
Department's involvement with the Taiwan Government (based
on requests from the FBI). Mr. Brown said he might not
respond to a number of things since what he might say would
be repeated in the press. He did not wish to say anything
that might prejudice an ongoing investigation and any
possible prosecutions that may occur within the United
States. He further said, with the indulgence of the
Subcommittee, that he proposed not to allude to, confirm or
deny, names of any of the suspects in the American
investigation of the case, and that any such questions be
directed to law enforcement officials investigating the case.
This was followed by a number of questions posed to Mr. Brown
on cooperation from the Taiwan Government, and extradition
treaties (none between USG and Taiwan).
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Mrs. Henry Liu, the widow of the murdered man, was
accompanied by her attorney and also a Professor Lee Chiu
Wong(?), provided information on her late husband and his
writings about President Chiang; she believed her husband was
killed by the Government of Taiwan. Mrs. Liu was asked
whether her husband had visited Mainland China (Answer: four
times--1975, 1980, 1981 and 1984, and met with officials of
the PRC. Another question from Mr. Lantos: Did he publish a
book in the PRC? Answer: Yes. It yeas brought out that Henry
Liu had not visited Taiwan in 16 years and was not afraid in
the U.S. that anything might happen to him. Mr. Torricelli,
who had arrived late in the meeting, asked whether Mr. Liu
had been compensated for his writings by any foreign
government. Answer: No, supported himself by family business.
At approximately 4:15 p.m., and following the conclusion
of Mrs. Liu's testimony, Mr. Solarz announced that the
Subcommittee would now take up his Substitute for the
Amendment to H. Res. 49 offered by Mr. Solomon. (It appeared
Mr. Solarz had overlooked the fact that Mr. Glennon, the
fourth witness, had not yet testified. The Subcommittee
spent about twenty minutes on re-working the Substitute
Amendment.
Mr. Leach then suggested the Subcommittee adjourn due to
the lateness of the hour. Mr. Solarz agreed, but it was at
this point it was brought to his attention that Mr. Glennon
was still waiting to appear as a witness. (At this point,
however, Messrs. Lantos, Leach, Torricelli, Roth and Solomon
left the hearing room. Messrs. Lantos and Solomon returned
at the conclusion of Mr. Glennon's statement.)
Mr. Glennon thanked the Committee for inviting him to
appear and read his prepared statement (a'copy of which is
attached), in which he alleged that foreign intelligence
agencies--including those of Taiwan--have conducted extensive
harassment, intimidation, and surveillance of U.S. residents;
that the U.S. intelligence community has known for some time
that these acts have been taking place. Pro forma protests
made, but liaison relationships continue. That if the
Subcommittee "is serious about getting to the bottom of this,
then it must look carefully and purposefully at the whole
gamut of relevant liaison relationships." He proposed, inter
alia, that the Administration "impose a prohibition against
direct and indirect participation in and encouragement of
activities that our own agencies are forbidden to conduct"
and "would 'task' the CIA, FBI and NSA to gather intelligence
actively about those foreign agencies reasonably believed to
be engaged in acts of harassment, intimidation, or
surveillance within the United States."
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At the conclusion of Mr. Glennon's remarks, Mr. Solarz
commented that he, Mr. Glennon, had provided some
"interesting thoughts on the subject and that the
Subcommittee would carefully consider them." He then asked
Mr. Glennon, considering his experience in following the
course of foreign intelligence activities and based on the
knowledge available to him, did he think the situation has
changed. Mr. Glennon said although he left the SFRC staff
five years ago it is his impression of the situation that the
present situation has not changed a lot. When asked what
countries he thought the Subcommittee should look at, Mr.
Glennon responded, "Again, I am not revealing classified
information, I think the countries would be Taiwan,
Yugoslavia and, to an extent, the Philippines. I might say
the Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Service,
retains a clipping service on this subject that could be very
useful. You should ask them to compile the clippings--to
determine what countries should be targeted."
Mr. Solarz then asked what the Subcommittee should do "if
the Administration genuinely believes it does not have
evidence to justify this conclusion. There is a difference,
he said, between allegations and proof--particularly if (the
Administration) believes the foreign government is initiating
standards--in order to justify implementation of penalties.
They do not have conclusive evidence that there is a
consistent pattern of harassment...." Mr. Glennon suggested
that Executive Branch representatives should be called before
the Subcommittee to show there is no conclusive evidence.
Mr. Solarz said the FBI--in their view--there is no foreign
intelligence activity that can be characterized as systematic
harassment or intimidation. If they did, would there be any
justification for the legislation you suggest? To which
Mr. Glennon responded that he thought the Congress can itself
come to that conclusion "if you take the conclusion reached
by the Administration--this Subcommittee itself can look to
see whether it supports the conclusion."
Mr. Solarz suggested that as a practical matter, it would
be almost impossible to persuade the Congress they (the
foreign intelligence agencies) are engaging in such a pattern
if the intelligence agencies say they have no evidence to
that effect. "We have to rely on their judgment."
Mr. Glennon commented,"in that case the approach is a
dead-end stone."
Mr. Solarz asked "Do the intelligence agencies allocate
resources to determine if foreign intelligence services are
involved? Mr. Glennon said that he could not go into the
subject in open session.
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At this point, Mr. Solomon submitted for the record an
article printed in the Wall Street Journal on December 26,
1984, which was relevant to the matter at hand.
Mr. Solarz concluded by saying to Mr. Glennon that he
made some serious suggestions which the Subcommittee would
take a close look at and take up with leaders in the
Government.
Liaison Division
Office of Legislative Liaison
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