Early life Chen was born in
Sichuan to a father of
Hunan origin and a mother of
Jiangsu origin; his father was a civil servant with the
Republic of China government. When the
Kuomintang (KMT) Nationalist government fled from
mainland China at the end of the
Chinese Civil War in 1949, he followed his parents to Taiwan. There, he entered a school in which most of the students were born locally. As one of only three non-locals or
waishengren in his class, he became a frequent target of bullying; he and fellow students with roots in the mainland began to form gangs for their own protection.
United Bamboo He joined a local gang at 12, and United Bamboo Association (uniting all the "non-local" gangs to stand up against another local gang) was created a couple of years later; it was at this time that he acquired his nickname of "Dry Duck". While still a member of the gang, he went on to receive a bachelor's degree in engineering from Tam Kiang College (now
Tamkang University), and served in the army as a lieutenant. He became the head of the gang in April 1968; under his leadership, its membership would grow to over a hundred thousand, making it the largest gang in Taiwan. from
KMT officials angered by Liu's authorship of a biography critical of
Republic of China president Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of
Chiang Kai-shek. They allegedly offered him a
US$20,000 reward to carry out the murder, which he refused, instead agreeing to kill Liu without compensation out of "patriotism". For one month afterwards, he received training at the intelligence bureau's school at
Yangmingshan, outside of Taipei, where intelligence officials gave him details of Liu's schedule and movements. During his training period, he also met with
Chiang Hsiao-wu, son of
Chiang Ching-kuo, whom he stated personally approved the killing. Local police immediately suspected political motives, as Liu had not been robbed after he was killed;
The New York Times noted that other critics of the KMT government had previously been killed in 1980 (the mother and twin daughters of
Lin Yi-hsiung) and 1981 (
Chen Wen-chen). Chen was identified as "the Asian man who couldn't speak English" by neighborhood children after the shooting, as he was found feeding candy to their lost dog while he had been staking out Liu's home. The United States
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) named Chen as the leader of the plot to murder Liu in late November 1984. Chen made a tape-recorded confession on 18 October after he realized that officials had misled him about Liu's links to Communism; Chen emphasized he had not taken any payment for the murder, but was acting out of a deep sense of patriotism. Fearing that he would be betrayed, Chen had left the recorded confession with his associate, "Yellow Bird", in
Houston,
Texas, providing details and naming the officials behind the case, including Admiral
Wang Hsi-ling, the head of Taiwan's
Bureau of Military Intelligence. After the FBI obtained the tape from Chen's fellow gang members, the three officials named were arrested by Taiwanese authorities on 15 January 1985; At his 1985 trial in Taipei, Chen testified in more detail about the connection with the KMT, claiming that Admiral Wang had ordered him to kill Liu because Liu was a double agent, spying for both Taiwan and mainland China. Chen claims he disobeyed the order and instructed his associates to "teach [Liu] a lesson" and avoid killing or crippling him. Chen, Wang, and Wu were all sentenced to life in prison on 9 April 1985. The week after the trial, the
U.S. House of Representatives passed by a vote of 387-2 a non-binding resolution () calling on Taipei to extradite Chen and Wu to the United States to stand trial there; the "nay" votes came from
Bob Stump (R-AZ) and
Howard C. Nielson (R-UT). Taipei rejected the request the following day. Less than two months after his conviction, Chen retracted his accusations against Wang. Chen, Wang, and Wu were given clemency by the Taiwanese government and released in January 1991. He and Wu were treated as "heroes" by the media and the public; Chen declared his intention to transform the United Bamboo Gang into a legitimate business enterprise, and established
Chuan An Construction, which was successful not only in the booming construction industry on Taiwan, but also made large investments outside Taiwan as well, including an
RMB10 billion resort project in
Hunan's Moon Lake area. He lived quite luxuriously in Cambodia, alone in his villa, while his wife and children remained in Taiwan. Fellow Liu killer
Wu Tun, with whom Chen had remained friends, helped to organise his funeral; over three thousand people came to pay their respects. Among the mourners were major politicians from both the
blue and
green camps such as
Wang Jin-pyng of the
Kuomintang and
Ker Chien-Ming of the
Democratic Progressive Party, as well as various celebrities of whom the most prominent was popular singer
Jay Chou; they suffered harsh criticism for their attendance, including a
Taipei Times editorial, which characterised the politicians' presence as "revolting" and stated that Chou "should be ashamed, but we are not sure if he has the depth of character to feel it." Chou, who showed up wearing sunglasses and left after only 20 minutes, had become acquainted with Chen through his son
Baron Chen, with whom Chou had previously worked in the filming of
Kung Fu Dunk. Other attendees, including black-clad teenagers and those carrying knives and firearms, were turned away by the hundreds of police who came out to the funeral to maintain order. ==Personal life==