page_title: Cheng Tzu-tsai
section_title: 1970 assassination attempt
hierarchical_section_title: Cheng Tzu-tsai / 1970 assassination attempt
caption_attribution_description: English: Taipei 228 Monument.
context_page_description: Cheng Tzu-tsai is a Taiwan-born architect and dissident who conspired with others in the 1970 assassination attempt of Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of Chiang Kai-shek, in New York City.
context_section_description: Cheng, then the secretary-general of WUFI, had conceived and organized the plot along with his brother-in-law Peter Huang, Cheng's wife Huang Ching-mei, and WUFI member Lai Wen-hsiung (賴文雄; Lài Wénxióng). On April 24, 1970, Cheng and Huang carried out the attempted assassination. Although Cheng intended to be the assassin, Huang volunteered in consideration of Cheng's wife and children. While Cheng was handing out pamphlets and shouting as a distraction, Huang approached Chiang with a gun at the Plaza Hotel, but a Diplomatic Security Service special agent pushed him out of the way, causing the bullet to strike the hotel's revolving doors. Cheng hurried to Huang's side once the gun was fired, and both men were arrested.
  WUFI later issued a statement disclaiming involvement. Huang pleaded guilty in a 1971 trial to charges of attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm, but was granted bail before sentencing, and fled the United States. Cheng pleaded innocent to attempted murder, but was convicted after a WUFI colleague testified he had given the weapon to Cheng.
  Cheng also jumped bail in 1971 just before his conviction, fleeing to Sweden for asylum, but was extradited to the US a year later in 1972. Cheng fought the extradition attempt with a hunger strike, but was loaded while characterized as "semi-conscious" on the flight from Stockholm to New York. That flight was diverted to Copenhagen when the plane developed mechanical issues, and Cheng was taken to the hospital after falling unconscious to receive intravenous fluids. After a second flight from Copenhagen to London, Cheng again fell unconscious, where he was taken, foaming at the mouth, to the health center in Heathrow Airport. He was later moved to a prison hospital. Cheng applied for a writ of habeas corpus while he was detained in the United Kingdom, but this was refused in 1972 and an appeal was denied in 1973. Upon returning to the United States, Cheng was sentenced to up to five years in prison and spent 22 months in jail.
caption: Cheng designed the 228 Massacre Monument while imprisoned for illegal entry
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