The Control Yuan indicted Liu due to his role in a corruption case involving the extracting of around $360 million U.S. dollars from the Chungli Farmers' Association.

[3] Authorities have not solved the crime; some Taiwanese police believe that Chinese gang members recruited by "a local group" killed Liu and the others.

[8] At the time the shooting was the deadliest mass murder in Taiwanese history, and Liu was the only high-ranking government official to be assassinated in his term.

[9] The execution-style slaying of Liu was thought to have revealed governmental corruption, which was cited as one reason Lu won, despite pre-election polls predicting a KMT victory.

Demonstrators marched on 4 May 1997[11] and 18 May 1997,[12] demanding Premier Lien Chan's resignation[13][14] over the perceived rise in violent crime as evidenced by the then-unsolved murders of Pai Hsiao-yen, Peng Wan-ru,[15] and Liu Pang-yu.