Fourth Brother of Taiwan Celebrity Yu Tian Executed in Xiamen on International Anti-Drug Day for Leading Cross-Border Heroin Smuggling Ring

On June 26, 2005 — the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking — Yu Fu-hsing (余福星), the fourth younger brother of celebrated Taiwanese entertainer Yu Tian (余天), was executed by shooting in Xiamen, People's Republic of China (PRC), in what became one of the most shocking celebrity-adjacent family drug tragedies in cross-strait history. Yu Fu-hsing had been separated from his family and placed for adoption in childhood amid poverty, and had little contact with his elder brother Yu Tian as an adult. According to the findings of the Xiamen Intermediate People's Court, Yu Fu-hsing was the mastermind behind an international narcotics trafficking operation: in March 2004, he and his co-conspirators traveled to Yangon, Burma (Myanmar), to procure a large quantity of heroin from local drug networks, then attempted to smuggle the drugs concealed inside cigarette cartons through Xiamen airport for onward transport to the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan). Yu Fu-hsing was arrested by Chinese public security authorities at Xiamen in March 2004. On March 29, 2005, the Xiamen Intermediate People's Court handed down a first-instance death sentence for drug trafficking, which was subsequently upheld. On June 26, 2005, the PRC authorities carried out the execution — deliberately timed to coincide with the UN International Anti-Drug Day. When news reached Taiwan, Yu Tian faced cameras visibly distressed, publicly stating: 'Even if he is my brother and I love him, what he did — trafficking drugs — is truly deserving of death.' Yu Tian's father Yu Chih-hua was said to have told his son not to cry publicly, insisting that adults must take responsibility for their own actions. Reports indicated that Yu Tian had attempted to use back-channel contacts to plea for leniency, but given the severity of the offense and the scale of the drug haul involved, all efforts proved futile. The episode laid bare the stark divide between Yu Tian's gleaming entertainment industry persona and the darkness within his extended family, and became an occasional point of reference for opposition parties after Yu Tian entered politics, winning election to the Legislative Yuan as a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator in 2008.