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| 1987 Lieyu massacre | |
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| Part of theCold War | |
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 Interactive map of 1987 Lieyu massacre | |
| Location | 24°24′54″N118°14′21″E / 24.41500°N 118.23917°E /24.41500; 118.23917 Republic of ChinaDonggang,Lieyu Township,Kinmen County,Fuchien Province |
| Date | 7 March 1987 (1987-03-07) – 8 March 1987; 38 years ago (1987-03-08) (UTC+8) |
| Target | Vietnameseboat people |
Attack type | Massacre |
| Deaths | 24[1][2][note 1] |
| Perpetrators | 158Heavy InfantryDivision,Kinmen Defense Command,Republic of China Army |
| Motive | 3: Order of taking nosurrender, 16 (?): Eliminatingwitnesses[5][6] |
| 1987 Lieyu massacre | |||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 烈嶼屠殺事件 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 烈屿屠杀事件 | ||||||
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| March 7 Incident | |||||||
| Chinese | 三七事件 | ||||||
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| Donggang Incident | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 東崗事件 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 东岗事件 | ||||||
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| Donggang Tragedy | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 東崗慘案 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 东岗惨案 | ||||||
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| Part ofa series on |
| White Terror in Taiwan |
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The1987 Lieyu massacre occurred on 7 March 1987 at Donggang Bay,Lieyu Island ("Lesser Kinmen" or "Little Quemoy"),Kinmen,Fuchien,Republic of China (ROC) when soldiers from the ROC Army's 185 Heavy Infantry Division killed 24Vietnamese refugees on the shoreline of Donggang Bay, including eight children (one baby), five women (one pregnant) and eleven men.[1][2] The ROC military officially denied the massacre and defined it as an incident of "accidental manslaughter" (誤殺事件), hence referring to it as theMarch 7 Incident (三七事件) orDonggang Incident (東崗事件).[7][8]
Despite the ROC's attempts to cover-up the incident, the massacre sparked political outrage, and partially contributed to the end of the 38-year long period of martial law; it had been in place since theKuomintang'sexodus from mainland China in May 1949. The case remains under investigation.[9][10]
The entireKinmen Archipelago, a group of about twenty islands and islets, were still considered a war zone at the time and were undermartial law. The Kinmen Defense Command (金門防衛司令部, or KDC), afield army of the Republic of China (ROC) Army, controlled the islands in an effort to prevent an attack by thePeople's Liberation Army after the ROC had ended its attempt to retakemainland China by force in 1970.[11] On 18 December 1978,Deng Xiaoping announced theChinese economic reform policy, followed by the establishment of 4special economic zones. The internationalport of Xiamen was expanded for commercial traffic on 7 October 1980.[12][13]
The KDC Commander, GeneralSong Hsin-lien [zh], was promoted to director of theNational Security Bureau in Taipei on 15 December, and GeneralChao Wan-fu [zh] assumed the command.[14][15][16] In the following spring, Chao instructed the 158 Division Commander,Major-general Gong Li (龔力少將) to construct two propaganda walls—one 3.2m high and 20m long onDadan Island, and the other onErdan Island—with slogans proclaiming "Three Principles of the People Unify China" shining with neon lights at night until July 1995. Completed in August 1986, the walls faced the international seaway of Xiamen Bay,[17] whereXi Jinping (laterCCP general secretary) was the Deputy Mayor ofXiamen City.[18]
Following theVietnam War (1955–1975), theCambodian–Vietnamese War (1978–1979), and theSino-Vietnamese War (1979), manyIndochinese refugees fled abroad. They often had to move several times as local authorities rejected those displaced by the crisis.[19] The Penghu Defense Command (澎湖防衛司令部 or PDC) cooperated with the "Hai-piao Project" (海漂專案) (an arrangement of theOverseas Community Affairs Council and theChinese Association for Relief and Ensuing Services) to transport 2,098 refugees in 45 boats and the "Ren-de Project" (仁德專案) to relocate another 6,497 refugees by air. In total, over 12,500 people were rescued starting in 1975.[20][21][22]
On 1 April 1982, theExecutive Yuan issued the "Pingjing Project" (平靖專案), a procedure instructing theMinistry of National Defense (MND) to return the refugees. The MND updated itsstandard operating procedure in 1985 but did not actually enforce the new guidance. Instead, the actual practice in the frontline was to kill detainees if a purge failed. They would either bury corpses perfunctorily on the beach or let the tides pull the bodies into the sea. The MND were well aware of the practice, but turned a blind eye. They forged ahead with purposeful "refugee warfare" which endangered national security.[23][24]
In January 1985, a local Chinesesampan with eight fishermen suffered engine failure and floated ashore atShi Islet, part of the 473 Brigade's defense region. When the platoon stationed there contacted the KDC for instructions, they were ordered to kill the stranded fishermen. Six died under crossfire but two escaped to a rock cave, kneeling down to beg for mercy. When discovered, those two were pushed off the rock cliff to fall to their death after the KDC reiterated the order to kill the entire crew. A subsequent search of the sampan found only a letter drafted by one of the sailors, a son telling his mother that he had collected sufficientyarn for her to knit a sweater for winter.[25]
In April 1986, an incident occurred where a young couple, both teachers, swam from Xiamen toDadan Island seekingasylum.[24] The commander of the Dadan Defense Team (大膽守備隊), Premier Deputy Division Commander of the 158 LieyuDivision (烈嶼師) Colonel Chien Yi-hu (錢奕虎上校), received the couple and escorted them to the KDC headquarters on the main island of Kinmen. Chien was immediately relieved of his post for violating the directive to "accept nosurrender in the war zone".[26]
In mid-July 1986, General Chao inspected the outlying islets of Lieyu, and noticed that theamphibious reconnaissancebattalion (ARB-101,海龍蛙兵) took in an unknown person swimming near Dadan after the local garrison failed to expel him away. Chao was furious, condemning the ARB leader, and left in anger; the Dadan commander then called all the units to announce the kill-them-all policy to prevent anybody arriving onshore.[27] The neighboringErdan Island commander (二膽守備隊), Deputy Brigade Commander of the 473 Brigadelieutenant colonel Zhong—who had executed 7 stranded fishermen in 1983 and relayed the KDC's order for the aforementioned killings at Shi Islet[25][24]—also summoned all the soldiers to reiterate the order: "Whoever lands on the island must be executed without exception."[28][29] Soon after, he was promoted to the position of 472 NantangBrigade Commander (南塘旅) and took charge of all the units in the SouthLieyu Defense Team (烈嶼南守備隊).[29][30]
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 Declassified KDC nuclear cannon strike plan covers Xiamen City & international Port of Economy Zone Distance: 10 km, Effective Radius: 8 km, Population: 1.06 million |
Both the KDC and the Matsu Defense Command (馬祖防衛司令部, or MDC) guardednuclear artillery strike plans targeting neighboring regions during the Cold War. These targeted regions included the strategic Xiamen City, even though the affected radius also covered the ROC's own stationed Dadan and Erdan Islands.[31] It is alleged that a previous nuclear weapons program undertaken since 1967 was forced to stop in 1977 under the pressure of United States andIAEA, but was followed by another hidden agenda. In 1986, after nearly 20 years of research and simulation testing, a successful minimized nuclear test at the Jioupeng military field inPingtung was recorded by USsatellite imagery; later, in 1988, it was questioned by the director ofAmerican Institute in Taiwan, David Dean, according to the diary of Superior-generalHau Pei-tsun.[32][33][34][35]
The development of thenuclear weapons program was eventually exposed by ColonelChang Hsien-yi, deputy director of theInstitute of Nuclear Energy Research at theNational Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, who defected to the United States in January 1988.[36][37] A ROC military agent traced Chang's child after school to locate their home inWashington, D.C. until finally violated the federalwitness protection program, further leading to the confrontation of Director Dean with General Hau.[38][7][clarification needed]
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| Last seen disoriented boat trail mark |
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| Dashanding Hill & Donggang Bay |
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| Fishery port (bottom-left), first scene (center) & second scene (mid-left) have been demolished; landform changed |
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| Gen. Hau's Diary (May 20 – Oct. 1) |
On 6 March 1987, a boat ofVietnamese refugees who had been rejected inHong Kong arrived inKinmen to requestpolitical asylum. However, General Chao rejected the demand, and ordered an ARB-101 patrol boat to tow away the boat from the shore on the morning of 7 March, with a warning not to return. However, for reasons unclear, information about the boat's presence in the Southern Sea was never forwarded to the front line of the coastal defense units, including those onLieyu Island.
As a seasonal heavyfog appeared on the coast and gradually turned clear in the afternoon,[1] the Vietnamese boat was sighted by aninfantry post off the south shore of Lieyu at 16:37, where it had been too close and too late to apply for theindirect fire support byartillery intervention. The local 1st Dashanding InfantryBattalion (大山頂營) Commander, Major Liu Yu; the 472Brigade Commander, Colonel Zhong; and the 158 Division G3 Chief Operation Officer (參三科科長), Colonel Han Jing-yue (韓敬越), arrived at the scene with staff officers.[39]The 629 Light Artillery Battalion—which happened to be taking a field drill practice in the ancient airport on the northeastern beachfront—launched a singlestar shell which lit up the background horizon sky, but found no invasion force approaching. Meanwhile, warning shots followed by expelling shots were fired in sequence as per the procedure steps in therules of engagement, usingT57 rifles,.30 caliber, and.50 caliber machine guns in short range by the 3rd Company and the reserve platoons of three companies while another one was coming in, totaling over 200infantrymen.
The Vietnamese boat was stranded on the sand beach southwest of Donggang (Dōnggāng) Fishery Port (Fort L-05), a sensitive strategic point in front of the mobile positions ofM40 recoilless rifles andM30 mortars. Nearby was the communication transit station nicknamed "04" (ahomonym of 'You die' in Chinese pronunciation) on a hill with a 30°-angle blind corner on radar screens caused by the steep hillside. This hillside lay in front of the classified240 mm howitzer M1 ("Black Dragon" or "Nuclear Cannon")railway gun positions of Kinmen Defense Command, and the155/105 mm artillery battalions of 158 Division.[40][41][42] As such, the foreign boat's landing location on the beach beneath aroused significant concern. The boat was hit bycrossfire from L-05, L-06, and FortFuxing Islet of the 2nd Battalion, plus twoM72 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 left the boat, raised their hands, and pled in Chinese, "Don't shoot ...!" but were all shot dead.[43]
The local 3rd Dongang Company (東崗連) Commander, Lieutenant Chang, received the order from the brigade commander to dispatch a search team to board the boat. Twohand grenades were thrown into the boat before the search team found that all the passengers were Vietnamese refugees with no weapons on board. The passengers said that the vessel had experienced a mechanical failure. Because of the heavy fog, the strong seasonalcurrents and the risingtide 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 neitherfirst aid nor anylife support supply rendered. Following intensetelecommunication with the Division Headquarters, the commanders at the scene received orders from their superiors—alleged directly by Commander General Chao—to kill the passengers to eliminate all the eyewitnesses.[44] Some refugees received multiple shots when the first bullet did not kill them. Among the bodies piled were elderly people, men, women, onepregnant woman, children, and a baby in asweater.[45][46]
The following identification evidence was collected at the scene, and enlisted through the P4 (Internal Security) channel of the Political Warfare Department, the KDC, and the MND Army Commands HQ:
For unknown reasons, none of this evidence was later adopted by either the prosecutor or the judge, hence all the court documents named the victims only as the "unknown people" (不明人士).[24][47]
After collecting the refugee documents, a mother and three children (one baby being held in her arm and two kids running around her) were killed together kneeling down on the beach.[44][23] The last words of the pregnant woman were in English: "Help me ... Help my baby ... My baby seven months ...", before she and two other women were killed by.45 caliber handgun shots; the battalion operation officer then made a joke on her dead body (never showing remorse during the annual reunions in subsequent years).[48] A boy got up to flee but was shot in the shoulder and fell down, until another officer stepped forward to finish him off.[49] Major-general Gong arrived at Donggang at 18:30; Zhong and Liu reunited with Gong again at the Division Headquarters to report to General Chao by the phone landline at 21:00, and received Chao's praise.[24]
At 07:00 the morning of 8 March 1987, the medicalplatoon of theBattalion Headquarters (BHQ) Company was called in to bury all the bodies at the beach. The platoon members were ordered to kill any surviving refugees. The wounded were buried alive, and those who were still moving or crying were dictated to be killed by military shovels.[49][50] The entire boat was instructed to be burned (aside from the 3-blade propeller), then buried in sand to destroy all the evidence. The last victim, a young boy hidden underneath a board cell, was also found and killed by order without exception.[49] The guardingsergeant of the BHQ Company overnight counted the bodies as more than nineteen.[51][44]
Over 30 individual rifles with maintenance records were suddenly reportedjammed as non-operational, possibly due to the soldiers unwilling to kill the civilians, hence jammed their own rifles on purpose.[24] Since somemedics defied direct orders to kill the victims, the brigade command dispatched theBrigade Headquarter Company (RHQ) commander to take over the BHQ Company as the emergency measure to prevent mutiny and to blockade the site.[52]
A local store owner heard the crying of the refugees overnight and made a phone call to informHuang Chao-hui, theNational Assembly member inKaohsiung, but the contact was soon lost. At the time, all civilian and public long-distance phone calls were being routinely monitored by the Communication Supervision Section of Kinmen Defense Command.[53] Nevertheless, the bodies were not buried deeply at the first site. Influenced by tidalseawater and high temperatures, the bodies soon began todecompose and were dug out bywild dogs from the landfill (小金垃圾場) on the back side of the western hill. The bodies were later reburied collectively in one mound at a second site on the higher ground next to the tree line. This task was performed by the 1st Company, who had just resumed their posts after winning the annual Army Physical and Combat Competitions in Taiwan.[54] Accounts ofghost sightings prompted villagers to hold religious ceremonies, and a tinyshrine was built by soldiers on the beach the next year. This activity made it all the more difficult to prevent the spread of information about the incident.[55][42] Nonetheless, both sites, along with 04 Station, L-05 Fort, Donggang Port, and even thebreakwater bank, were all demolished withbulldozers in name ofdemining in August 2011.[56] In 2021, the local villagers rebuilt a new shrine beside the path inland in lament.[57]
In early May 1987,British Hong Kong newspapers first reported that the refugee boat went missing after leaving the port along the coast for Kinmen, Taiwan.[43][58] Informed by the overseas office, higher officials questioned the Kinmen Defense Command but got no concrete response.[59] Instead, the Command urgently swapped this front line coast defense battalion with a reserve battalion from the training base in order to strengthen the personnel control and communication restriction to prevent further leaking news. In addition, the battalion's unit designation codes were shifted for the following two years to confuse outsiders. Two "extra bonuses" of cash summing up to half a month of acaptain's salary ($6,000) were also abnormally awarded to thecompany commanders against government regulations and ethics, on the eve of theDragon Boat Festival.[60] However, at the end of May, recently dischargedconscript soldiers from Kinmen began to arrive in Taiwan proper and finally were able to appeal to the newly founded opposition party, theDemocratic Progressive Party. The information of the massacre started to spread in Taiwan.[29]
Ten weeks after the massacre, thePresident of the Republic of China (Taiwan),Chiang Ching-kuo, reacted to thecover-up by the 158 Division and the Kinmen Defense Command. General Chao Wan-fu said he was unaware of the event.[59] While being questioned by the Chief of the General Staff (參謀總長),Superior-generalHau Pei-tsun on 20 May, General Chao still stated: "It was just a couple of 'Communist soldiers' [referring to the People's Liberation Army] being shot in the water", but Chao's statement contained contradictory evidence. Hau then ordered that the corpses be moved from the beach to a remote hidden slope in front of Fort L-03 (east cape) on the right, filled over withcement to seal the corpses at the third unmarked site, and a concrete military training wall be built on top to prevent any future investigation.[49][61] General Chao ordered all the 158 Division officers to be present as participating the cover-up operation.[49] The path access was prohibited to the public by the military after 2020 till 10 August 2024; Hsien-Jer Chu, the documentary film director who accompanied the victim's family members to the site, realized that the corpses had been "disappeared."[57][62]
At the end of their conscription service terms, the soldier witnesses were ordered to sign an oath to maintain silence and guard the secret for life before returning home to Taiwan.[63][55]
On 5 June 1987,Independence Evening Post was the first Taiwanese newspaper to report the massacre, which prompted formal questioning by the newly electedLegislative Yuan memberWu Shu-chen, along with a joint written form by PMsChang Chun-hsiung andKang Ning-hsiang from theDemocratic Progressive Party to the MND during the general assembly. They received only the response: "No need to reply!"[8] Her questions were repeatedly denied by the military spokesman Major-general Chang Hui Yuan (張慧元少將), who accusedCongresswoman Wu of "sabotaging the national reputation", and claimed it was actually "a Chinese fishing boat being sunk in the sea after ignoring the warnings".[64] That night, uniform propaganda was broadcast on the evening news on all public TV channels. The next morning, on 6 June, all local newspapers received government instructions to publicize the press release of theCentral News Agency originating from the Military News Agency (軍聞社).
The case was classified as a military secret for 20 years to prevent any further information leaks.[65] Subsequent media reports were censored, and publication of the case was banned by the Nationalist government. In April 1989, when the police broke into the office of the magazineFreedom Era Weekly [zh] (which had publicized case interviews and editorials before) for an arrest on a separate charge oftreason, editor-in-chiefCheng Nan-jungset himself on fire and died in protest forfreedom of speech. Separately, military journalistChang You-hua [zh] ofIndependence Evening Post was sentenced to 1 year and 7 months with a probation period of 3 years in November 1991.[66]
For the same reason, theHujingtou Battle Museum of Lieyu (built in 1989) conspicuously left out any information on this part of history,[67] nor was it documented in the official archives of theKinmen National Park that later took over management of the beach. The official cover-up story of the Chinese fishing boat being sunk by one shell in a bombardment was what was told to the public for 13 years, until being uncovered by the publication of8-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.[7] TheGovernment of the Republic of China has madeno comment thereafter.
With the support of theFormosan Association for Public Affairs, theUnited States House of Representatives hence passed the "Taiwan Democracy Resolution" (H.R.1777) on 17 June 1987, calling on the ROC government to end the martial law ruling, lift theban on political parties, accelerate the realization of democracy including the protection of freedom of speech and assembly, and reformthe parliament election system for the legitimacy of government; theUnited States Senate passed the same resolution in December.[9] Though the resolution did not direct Taiwan to integrate intoneoliberalglobalization, it gradually turned the political movement for Taiwanese self-identity against the Chinese unification agenda withinROC politics. The opposition party, supported by the international community, took the chance to force Chiang Ching-kuo to lift martial law and begin the democratization process to distance itself from the Kuomintang'sOne China Policy. This developed with the promotion of neoliberal tendencies in Taiwan in a way that blocked political forces that favored a return to reunification.[10]
Later, on 14 July, Minister Cheng endorsed President Chiang's historic decree to end the notorious 38-year-long period ofmartial law in Taiwan (1948–1987),[68] except the War Zone Administration (戰地政務) on the frontier regions, including Kinmen andMatsu Islands, which remained under military governance until 7 November 1992.[69][70] Furthermore, on 2 November, President Chiang lifted a ban preventing people from visiting theirdivided families in China across theTaiwan Strait by allowing transfer through a third place, such asHong Kong,Okinawa, orTokyo.[71]
After the scandal was exposed, President Chiang Ching-kuo received a letter fromAmnesty International expressinghumanitarian concern, and assigned the Chief of General Staff, Superior-general Hau, to investigate this case.[7] On 16 June 1987,President of the Control Yuan (CY),Huang Tsun-chiu [zh] of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), assigned the committee member Ruo Wen-fu (羅文富) on an official investigation task to Lieyu. General Hau opposed this CY jurisdiction and considered the tour a pro-governmental "sightseeing visit" (參訪金門).[7] However, after Ruo submitted a field survey report expectedly identical to the KDC's story, Huang did not approve nor rejected the content, but only signed a word "Read" (閱) on 9 March 1988, which rendered the investigation incomplete.[72][44]
The Minister of National Defense,Cheng Wei-yuan, also arrived in Kinmen, and dispatched a special envoy of thePolitical Warfare Bureau to conduct the field investigation and excavation that discovered the civilian cadavers and eventually solved the criminal case on 23 May. On 28 May, theMilitary Police began to detain over 30 officers back to Taiwan forcourt-martial, including the commanders, corresponding political officers, and related staff officers along the 5 levels on thechain of command; 45 officers received theadministrative sanction of dishonored transfer.[73]
Nonetheless, the court-martial did not follow the 1949Fourth Geneva Convention and the 1951Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees to process this case. The accused have never been charged for wrongdoings to international refugees, regardless of evidence, but each was prosecuted for killing several "unknown people" of the "bandit area"[note 2] (applying only to the domestic criminal codes) on 11 September 1987. Division Commander Gong, Political Warfare Director Colonel Chang, and the P4 Section Leader Lieutenant-Colonel Hong were set free in 10 days.[24][23]
The first trial on 30 May 1988 sentenced Commander Zhong to 2 years and 10 months in prison, Liu to 2 years and 8 months, and Li and Chang to 2 years and 6 months, but the prosecutor and all four defendants appealed for rehearing. The MND then repealed the sentences on 9 September as failing to check the facts and reasons favoring the defendants. The retrial on 19 December 1988 reduced the sentences for Zhong to 1 year and 10 months, Liu to 1 year and 10 months, and Li and Chang to 1 year and 8 months, all commuted with aprobation period of 3 years; therefore, none of the convicted field commanders were required to spend even one day in prison.[24] They stayed in rank with posts suspended to continue service without pay until the end of the term, before relocating to training officer positions. Theirretirement andpension plans were not affected. Commander Zhong took a senior leadcolonel position in amilitary academy, Army Communication, Electronics and Information School.[24]
Likewise, the superior officers received no official punishment, and resumed their military careers after President Chiang suddenly died in January 1988.[74]Principal staff officer Major-general Fan Jai-yu (范宰予少將) was promoted to the commander of the 210Heavy Infantry Division ofHualien Expansion in 1989; then further to lieutenant-general, commander of thePenghu Defense Command in 1994; and then to the Principal of thePolitical Warfare Cadres Academy in 1996.
Division Commander Major-general Gong Li was shifted to the Chief of Staff of the War College,National Defense University; then promoted to the deputy commander of theHuadong Defense Command [zh] in 1992; and then became the Civil Level-12 Director ofBanqiao District House [zh] of theVeterans Affairs Council in 2000.
Kinmen Defense Commander Chao was promoted to deputy chief commandergeneral of theRepublic of China Army in 1989, and further to Deputy Chief of the General Staff of theRepublic of China Armed Forces in 1991; then appointed with honours as astrategy advisor [zh] to the President of the Republic of China in two terms; and then received the permanent title as the reviewer member of theCentral Committee of the Chinese Nationalist Party [zh] until his death on 28 February 2016. His official funeral was proceeded with his coffin covered by thenational flag and themilitary salute of the top-ranked generals.[75]Vice-presidentWu Den-yih presented a commendation decree byPresidentMa Ying-jeou, who praised Chao's 50-year career innational security with so-called "loyalty, diligence, bravery, perseverance, intelligence, wisdom, insight and proficiency" (忠勤勇毅，才識閎通), and that "hisvirtue andconducts have set a good examplemodel for future generations 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).[76] Chao was buried in the NationalWuzhi Mountain Military Cemetery.[77]
Twenty years later, in May 2007, Major Liu Yu, the 1st Battalion Commander, proclaimed in a military magazine interview that they were executing direct superior orders, and one officer who killed the refugees was never charged.[78] Ten years later, in January 2018, Liu was invited by theKinmen National Park administration to re-visit the old posts of the South Lieyu Defense Team. On the beach, he recalled to aChina Times journalist that he "handled" over 100 corpses—including in the Donggang Incident—during his total four years of assignments within three KDC terms.[79]
On 19 July 2020, Instructor Colonel (Ret.) Liao Nianhan (廖念漢) of theROC Military Academy interviewed the WPN company commander Captain Li Zhong-yan (李中焱) to re-affirm the official testimony that he had, in person, found that all the passengers had died after firing two M72 LAW shells, and hence nobody got out of the boat and there were no killings by shooting.[80] Liao's article dignified the four convicted schoolmates with "the ultimate sublime respect" (致上最崇高的敬意), in comparison to theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki andMỹ Lai massacre.[80] However, in January 2022, Captain Li changed his statement in a cross-examination throughFacebook with the other veterans of 158 Division before theLunar New Year. He then confirmed the boat stranding site and the later killings at two different locations.[81]
Thechilling effect of the massacre led to an absence of international refugees in the waters around Kinmen, and the last Jiangmei refugee camp, which had operated for 11 years inPenghu, was shut down on 15 November 1988 due to the policy change.[24][21] The purge policy on the Chinese fishermen and the surrendered remained the same, as the technique instructed by the new 158 Division Commander, Major-general Song En-ling, to the G3 staff officers: "Tell the landed people to run or they will be shot; then wait after they run to kill them".[24] However, in live practice, the survivors were taken into custody with their head covered for transferring to a temporary lodgment to be expelled later, and the political officers started to make reparations for the civilian casualties.
After negotiations for compensation failed, local Chinese fishing boats sometimes gathered around the incident islands to protest. Particularly in July and August 1990, the ROC military was criticized by the general Taiwanese public for the cheating and ignorance attitude on theMin Ping Yu No. 5540 andNo. 5502 disasters. Therefore, theRed Cross Society of China andRed Cross Society of the Republic of China—representing both sides—signed theKinmen Agreement on 12 September to establish the humanitarian repatriation procedures through Kinmen.[82][83]
On 7 November 1992, the provisional martial law control was historically lifted after 42 years of the War Zone Administration in power, and KDC returned governmental and civilian services management to the local county offices.[69] Still, it was not until 1995 that the firstmarine police patrols appeared in the Kinmen and Matsu regions. The Water Police Bureau, formally established on 15 June 1998, fully took over marine law enforcement, working with local police stations and the coastal justice systems; it was later reformed as theCoast Guard Administration under theOcean Affairs Council.[84][85]
Over 100 years after its establishment in 1911, the Republic of China still lacked arefugee law to regulate the political asylum process in accordance with modern international law,[86][87][88][89] and its government did not render anapology or any legalcompensation to the families or country of the victims.[90][91][92] On 3 October 2018, legislatorFreddy Lim, former Chairman of the Amnesty International Taiwan, inquired in a hearing of theForeign and National Defense Committee [zh] to examine the victims' files in the military archives in order to express an apology to their families through theVietnamese Representative Office (Vietnamese:Văn phòng Kinh tế Văn hoá Việt Nam), butMinister of National Defense GeneralYen Teh-fa disagreed: "The troops were following theStandard operating procedure (SOP rule) of the martial law period to execute [the orders], though it might look like having some issues nowadays; also, they have been court-martialed...".[90][91] Later, MND replied: "It has been too difficult to identify the deceased due to the long time, so [the case] cannot be processed further", which served as the sole statement of the ROC government for over 30 years after martial law was lifted in 1987.[8]
On 2 October 2021, a third round ofAnonymous hacks on a Chinese government tourism promotion website included ameme stating "If Taiwan wants to truly become Numbah Wan [sic], it must first redress the 1987 Lieyu Massacre", with a publicWikimedia Commons image of Xiamen, Lieyu, and Kinmen in the background.[93]
On 13 July 2022, Control Yuan memberGao Yong-cheng [zh] submitted a re-investigation report after one year of documentation based on the provided military archives and interviews with nearly 20 veteran witnesses. Interviewees included the convicted officers, whose testimonies (without passinglie detection) contradicted each other with retracted confessions, and contradicted new evidence and controversies at the first site, since the last CY investigation reported 34 years ago was considered incomplete.[24] The investigation then received approval from the joint committees of the Judicial and Prison Administration Affairs, the Domestic and Ethnic Affairs, the Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs, and the National Defense and Intelligence Affairs.[47][24] The report condemned the KDC for falsifying the facts, the court-martial prosecutor and judge for failing their duties of investigation, and the MND for ignoring the case for 35 years. It then recommended theMinistry of Justice re-open the case with a special appeal for legal re-investigation.[44][47][23]
On August 9, 2024, four family members of the Vietnamese refugee victims came to Taiwan from Vietnam and fromNorway for the first time with the assistance ofAmnesty International Taiwan Executive Director, Yi-ling Chiu (邱伊翎), Control Yuan member Gao Yong-cheng, documentary film director Hsien-Jer Chu (朱賢哲), and poet Hung-hung (鴻鴻) to seek truth and reconciliation. One of them, Tran Quoc Dung, who arrived in Xiamen later, was informed that two Vietnamese refugee boats had been destroyed in Kinmen and realized that his brother and cousin were dead, presented a commemorative plaque with a list of victims' names, pictures and birth years at the press conference, and stated that he was not there to blame the government or any individual.[4] He understood the reasons for the historical mistake and believes that the Taiwan government and people, out of humanitarianism and respect for human rights, will take concrete action to console the victims' families. "I wish to retrieve the evidence and belongings collected from the victims and re-bury their bodies properly... They sacrificed themselves to teach us the difference between democracy and autocracy, so let's protect this democracy and make it stronger... The 24 people were rejected the first time in Kinmen and the second time in Lieyu. This is the third and last time – on behalf of them, I hereby request the Taiwan government and people to let them regard Taiwan as their second and final home, please don't reject them again!"[94][95][96] Gao demanded the MND restart an internal investigation and search for evidence, data and items which the Control Yuan could not acquire before, and reveal them to the public or return them to the victims' families. A complete administrative investigation report should be submitted within 6 months. Chiu expressed hope that the state pay attention totransitional justice to reopen the investigation, face historical mistakes and address the shortcomings of Taiwan's long overdue missing Refugee Law to pass a bill that meets international human rights standards this year. A MND representative attended the conference to express their condolences and stressed accompanying the families to the scenes of the incidents, but maintained that the soldiers were carrying out their duties, and did not respond to the re-investigation demand.[1][97][2][98]
The ROC military has continued to assert that the soldiers' actions were justified. The incident then stands at the juncture of certain issues, including transitional justice, inclusive of past crimes committed by the military and its refusal to be accountable in the present, as well as Taiwan's poor treatment of refugees, which has affected individuals from a number of nationalities.[95] Asthere is no temporal or jurisdictional limitations on prosecution in theinternational criminal law and theuniversal jurisdiction is recognized beyond the domestic law system and procedure,[99][100] the legal exercise apply to all ranks and positions including officers, soldiers and national leaders regardless subject to the justice even after decades.[101][102][103]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
 Nationalist Party /National Government ( National Revolutionary Army)→Constitutional ROC Government (ROC Armed Forces)→Republic of China on Taiwan
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