February 28 is Peace Memorial Day in Taiwan. It honors victims of the White Terror era when the authoritarian Kuomintang (KMT) regime suppressed dissent after an anti-government uprising on February 28, 1947. Thousands perceived as dissidents died in that era until martial law was finally lifted in 1987. Taiwan has since become a vibrant democracy.
Now a new movie, “Murder of the Century,” has stirred public fury in Taiwan over the attempt to rewrite one of the most infamous murders of that time in a way that aligns with China’s interests.
The film looks into the brutal Lin family massacre. On February 28, 1980, an assassin entered the house of jailed democracy activist Lin Yi-hsiung and stabbed his mother 14 times, his 9-year-old daughter six times and his 6-year-old twin girls once each. The elder daughter, Judy, survived after she was discovered by a family friend and rushed to the hospital.
The murder case remains unsolved, but many in Taiwan believe it was orchestrated by the ruling authorities as a warning to democracy activists. Lin was one of eight prominent activists arrested after a seminal democracy rally on December 10, 1979 – International Human Rights Day. He was interrogated and tortured in jail. After visiting Lin on February 27, his wife, Fang Su-min, discussed contacting Amnesty International with a friend.
Their home was under 24/7 police surveillance, but on February 28 around noon, a slim man with neck-length hair dressed in a black suit and tie entered and massacred the family. The attack lasted 80 minutes. He covered each of the bodies with a blanket and put cash at their feet for the afterlife to keep their ghosts from haunting him. He then called a restaurant to ask for Mr. Wang and hung up in what many believe was a signal that he had completed his job.
The Transitional Justice Commission’s investigative report confirmed that the knife slashes, blankets, and money were marks of a professional assassin. The report concluded Taiwan’s intelligence agencies were likely involved with the murders.
However, according to a leaked script, the new film suggests the murderer was a well-known democracy activist. At a press conference this month announcing the wrap of filming, actress Lee Chien-na said, “If people re-examine the incident, they may discover it wasn’t that serious or horrific.” She also suggested the film would “give a new answer” about the murders. Her remarks – and the growing details about the film itself – led to outrage in Taiwan and an online movement to boycott the movie.
Public fury was so intense that the actors not only publicly apologized for the film but threatened to sue the producers if their voices and images are used in it. They said the director lied to them and said Lin had approved of the film. The filmmakers neither spoke with Lin or anyone related to the case. The producer said the movie has been postponed indefinitely.
The head of the film’s production company, Su Chin-shi, is the retired CEO of Yum China Holdings, which runs over 17,000 KFC and Pizza Hut stores in China. A prior film he produced also pushed a narrative about the 2004 assassination attempt on former President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu that is aligned with the opposition KMT, a party friendlier to China.
This time, Su’s attempt to pin Taiwan’s most famous murder on a Taiwan independence leader has backfired. The movie only brought more attention to the KMT’s authoritarian past and to the film’s possible backing by Beijing.
The film’s director, Hsu Kun-hua, went to university in Beijing and is the grandson of the spokesman of the secret police agency that suppressed dissent in the era of the murders. After backlash against the movie, Hsu apologized and said he understood his family’s identity was a source of pain for the victims. He said he would not be involved in post-production of the film.
The outrage in Taiwan shows how China has misjudged the potent memories of the Taiwanese public. Taiwan’s democracy is one of the strongest in the world, and the top in Asia, as ranked by the Economist Intelligence Unit, but its open society is also a prime target of disinformation. In Taiwan, 95 percent of people say they have encountered misinformation and 94 percent believe its impact is serious.
A National Security Bureau report cited an all-time high of 2.3 million pieces of fake news last year and 45,590 fake online accounts, up from 28,216 in 2024. The NSB report said Beijing is using an internet army that speaks 20 languages to spread its narrative. China is trying to undermine global support for Taiwan and the will of the Taiwanese to fight for their freedoms.
Taiwan’s democracy was achieved with the sacrifices of heroes like Lin Yi-hsiung, a key leader in the democracy movement. After the family’s devastating tragedy, Fang – who avoided a grisly fate simply because she was not home at the time – took her and Lin’s surviving daughter Judy to the United States, where she found healing and hope through Christianity and music. Judy married an American reverend, and they returned to Taiwan where she became an award-winning gospel singer and pianist.
I interviewed Judy and she has said she forgives the murderer, though she still deeply misses her sisters and grandmother.
Judy may forgive, but Taiwan cannot forget the crimes of its authoritarian past. Public opinion in Taiwan is powerful: it can take down a movie and choose its next president. As Taiwan and the world face rampant disinformation, speaking out for truth is one of democracy’s most powerful weapons.
