May 24 incident

The May 24 incident (Chinese: 五二四事件), also called the Liu Ziran incident (劉自然事件) and the Reynolds riot, was a 1957 international incident between the United States and Taiwan (ROC) that started over the killing of an ROC national by an American military officer and the subsequent acquitted court-martial conducted by U.S. military personnel in Taiwan, resulting in protests that culminated in separate mob attacks on the then-U.S. Embassy, the United States Information Service buildings and a police station in Taipei.

The U.S. government insisted that all of its civilian and military personnel including their dependents possess diplomatic immunity with the result that approximately 1000 Americans were subject to ROC law.

Robert G. Reynolds, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War who had served in Taiwan for two years as a member of MAAG, confronted Liu Ziran, purportedly a Republic of China Army Major and staff member at the Institute of Revolutionary Practice in Taiwan, outside Reynolds' duplex home on Yangmingshan (known to locals as Grass Mountain).

He further claimed that after trying to hail Taiwanese military policemen, Liu approached a second time leading Reynolds to fire a second round.

Almost immediately, U.S. and ROC criminal investigators reached different conclusions about the shooting, Initially, the Americans believed that Reynolds acted in self-defense and did not intend to pursue charges.

The prosecution argued that after firing the first shot, Reynolds did not have to capture what he later claimed was a burglar but instead should have retreated into his home and called police.

The not-guilty verdict angered ROC citizens who viewed the trial as rigged and could not understand how a person could kill another and not receive some type of punishment.

[6] On May 24 at around 10:00 a.m., Liu's widow arrived outside the U.S. Embassy with her daughter holding a poster that stated in English and Chinese: "The Killer--Reynolds is Innocent?

In the afternoon, waves of rioters entered the embassy doing damage including smashing vehicles and furniture and destroying the American flag.

The riots also touched the nerves of Asians who had their own resentments about the actions of U.S. military personnel especially in Japan which was already dealing with the Girard incident.