From: mcyang@pollux.usc.edu (Bien-Chao Iunn)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.taiwan
Subject: KMT campus spies in UCLA
Date: 5 Nov 1992 09:17:42 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: pollux.usc.edu

In article <1992Nov5.163107.10146@nntpd.lkg.dec.com> li@sicvax.enet.dec.com 
(Tong-Kang Li) writes:
>Mr. Chuang provided the above story to prove the KMT's spying activity still
>happens in the 90s. Maybe. But just based on the story, it is clearly that
>spying on Mr. Chen happened before 1990. How old this Mr. Chen? And what 
>year he was a student at UCLA? But Mr. Chuang is using the date of report, 
>May 1991, to confuse the readers .

Mr. Chen Jen-Ran was in UCLA during the year 1990.  Chen's current age
is arround 34.

>Again the story can not support his claim in his previous article that those 
>people who disagree with him are on the KMT's payroll without providing the 
>evidence. To me, that only shows he is probably as bad as KMT - twist the
>story.


The following article appeared on Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1991
section B6 -- Editorials of The Times.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 		"A Third Degree for a Ph.D"  

			      --- UCLA's Young rightly protests 
				    Taiwan's detention of student

Academic freedom means the pursuit of new and  old  ideas.   That
should be welcomed in Taiwan where the march toward democracy has
begun.  A student from UCLA has discovered otherwise.

Taiwanese authorities arrested Jen-Ran Chen on May  9  in  Taipei
and  charged the UCLA graduate student with sedition.  The charge
reportedly was based on Chen's research activities and  materials
he  had  been  collecting  for  his  UCLA  dissertation.   He was
released on bail, but his trial is set for June 22.

UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young, who was  visiting  Taiwan  when
Chen was arrested, has sent a strong letter urging authorities to
examine Chen's case carefully so that he is not punished for  his
academic research.

Young has special cause for  concern  because  Chen's  arrest  is
renewing fears among students at UCLA that they are being watched
by Taiwanese spies hired to monitor dissident activity.  Students
at  other  U.S.  college  campuses  have expressed similar fears.
This is eerily reminiscent of the circumstances  surrounding  the
1981  death  of  Carnegie-Mellon  University  assistant professor
Wen-Chen Chen.  Just days before he was to return to  Pittsburgh,
Chen  was  held  for alleged anti-Taiwan activities in the United
States.  His badly beaten body was discovered on the  grounds  of
the National Taiwan University.

UCLA's Chen is accused of attempting to overthrow the Nationalist
government  through  his  association with the banned Independent
Taiwan Assn. Chen came to UCLA from Taiwan in 1988 as a  graduate
student  and  took a leave in 1989 to work on his dissertation on
Taiwanese intellectuals.  In  the  course  of  his  research,  he
interviewed  and  corresponded  with  the  exiled founder of ITA.
Chen, who claims he is not a member of the group, also  conducted
student study groups on Taiwanese history.  The Taiwan government
is said to be alarmed at the recent interest  among  students  in
Taiwanese  history,  which  has  been  suppressed  by  the ruling
Nationalist Party since 1949.

If convicted, Chen could face death.  That would be a tragedy not
just for academic freedom, but for democracy.