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Chen Wen-chen to be
remembered
WHITE TERROR: The Chen Wen-chen Incident was one
of several possible murder cases related to democracy activists or their
families which have remained unsolved
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
National Communications
Commission Vice Chairman Yu Hsiao-cheng gestures while unveiling a list of seven
companies that will bid for up to seven 4G operation licenses at a press
conference in Taipei yesterday. Yu said he hopes the super-fast 4G mobile
Internet service will become operational next year.
Photo: Mandy Cheng, AFP
National Taiwan University (NTU) students
and democracy activists are to commemorate former Carnegie Mellon University
assistant professor Chen Wen-chen (陳文成) during a ceremony today which marks the
32nd anniversary of his mysterious death — a case that remains unsolved to this
day.
They are set to gather at Chen Wen-chen Memorial Square on the NTU campus and
pay tribute to the supporter of the pro-democracy movement at 6:30pm in a
ceremony that has become an annual event.
Chen, a graduate of NTU’s Department of Mathematics, studied in the US before
becoming an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of
Statistics.
He was detained by the Taiwan Garrison Command — a military security agency
during the Martial Law era — for interrogation on July 2, 1981, when he returned
to Taiwan to visit his family because of his support for the pro-democracy
movement.
The next morning, Chen’s body was discovered next to the library at NTU and it
was unclear whether his body had been deliberately placed there to appear as
though he had committed suicide or had fallen from the building by accident.
The Taiwan Garrison Command said it released Chen after the interrogation and
that it had nothing to do with his death.
Chen’s case, also known as the Chen Wen-chen Incident, was one of several
possible murder cases related to democracy activists or their families which
have remained unsolved after decades of investigation.
A non-profit, the Chen Wen-chen Memorial Foundation, was created in memory of
the assistant professor.
Another notable case occurred on Feb. 28, 1980 — exactly 33 years after the 228
Massacre of 1947, when Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops opened fire on
civilians, killing thousands — when former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
chairman Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) mother and his twin daughters were murdered.
Although the former KMT regime was strongly suspected of playing a role in the
murders, there is no evidence to prove the speculation.
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