11. The death of a Chinese engineer in The Hague in 1966 resulted in a five-month police standoff outside the Chinese legation in an attempt to question those believed to be responsible
Hsu Tsu-tsai, a 42-year-old Chinese engineer, was discovered critically injured on a doorstep in The Hague on July 16, 1966. The house in question, Number 17, Prinse Mauritslaan, was the residence of the Third Secretary of the Chinese Legation to the Netherlands, where the visiting engineer was staying and found screaming for help by a passing member of the public who alerted the authorities. Against the wishes of Chinese officials at the house, Dutch police transported Hsu to a hospital where he was diagnosed with serious spinal and internal injuries. Whilst undergoing treatment in the X-Ray department of the Red Cross Hospital, three Chinese officials stormed the room, placed Hsu on a stretcher, and forcibly carried him into a car. Driving the grievously wounded engineer to the Chinese legation at Adriaan Goekooplaan 7, unable to receive the medical attention he desperately needed Hsu would die later that afternoon.
Attempting to cremate the body before autopsy, a hearse smuggling his body was intercepted by Dutch police and an investigation opened into the death of the Chinese national. Chinese diplomats refused to answer questions, invoking their immunity, and consequently, on July 19 the Netherlands expelled the Chinese charge d’affaires, Li En-chiu. In retaliation, China detained the Dutch envoy in Peking (now Beijing) until all accomplices in the death of Hsu were permitted to return to China. After a five-and-a-half month standoff, in which the Dutch constructed a 10-foot high fence around the Chinese legation to prevent an escape, accepting that no prosecution was possible due to diplomatic immunity they allowed the suspects to depart.