Religious liberty problems have a long history in Taiwan and continued well after the Martial Law era. Some persist even today.
by Claudia Huang*
*A paper presented at the Second World Conference for Religious Dialogue and Cooperation, Strumica, North Macedonia, June 21, 2024.
Table of Contents
1. My experience with Tai Ji Men
I am a lawyer and former prosecutor and a Tai Ji Men dizi (disciple). I have been practicing Qigong for sixteen years, since I was a graduate school student. My husband and daughter are also Tai Ji Men dizi. In this paper, I will briefly summarize my experience with Tai Ji Men and then discuss some legal issues about law and religion in Taiwan and the Tai Ji Men case.
Tai Ji Men’s emphasis is on finding the balance between body, mind and soul through practicing Qigong and cultivating both mind and life. The Grand Master also teaches his disciples how to find their own conscience, honestly search for themselves, and modify themselves.
Rooted on Taoist ideas about the balance of Yin and Yang, our Master teaches disciples to find their true hearts, listen to their inner voice, observe their own behavior, reflect on themselves, and make corrections. Qigong should be practiced in conjunction with breathing, and in a relaxed and natural way.
Modern society is bursting with information, the pace of life is fast and busy, but the soul is empty. Stress can lead to alienation, insomnia, and depression. Therefore, modern people need physical and spiritual support. The busy pace can be slowed down by practicing Qigong. Step by step, we are taught to let the body return to nature and balance and achieve self-healing of body and mind.
In the past, I also suffered from physical and mental imbalance due to the pressure of study, exams, and work. I found a way to balance my body and mind by practicing Qigong and cultivating my mind with Tai Ji Men. The master taught me the philosophy of Yin and Yang, so that I could better distinguish between right and wrong also in my work as a prosecutor and as a lawyer. I try to listen to the opinions of the parties and find the right solution to solve problems and achieve a balance between the law and the interests of the parties.
2. Taiwan’s context
Religions and beliefs affect people’s behavior and values. Taking Taiwan as an example, some do not have a specific religion. They may worship God and also those ancestors who had excellent conduct and performed good deeds. This is a characteristic of Taiwan’s belief culture. Most Taiwanese people can accept the belief and moral concept of good thoughts, so a secularized concept of “practice” is being gradually promoted in Taiwan.
The law regulates society and may introduce restrictions on certain social activities. However, the inherent legal norms sometimes cannot follow the changes in social needs and conflicts with religion and belief are thus created.
3. The relationship between Taiwan’s government and religious beliefs
While Japan had ended its colonization of Taiwan, in China a civil war between the nationalist party Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communist Party broke out. After the KMT government retreated to Taiwan, it declared Martial Law there and called for a program of “Recovering and taking back the Mainland.” Groups with abundant personnel and financial resources that operated independently from the government, including religious and spiritual movements, were looked at with suspicion. During the Martial Law period, there were many cases of religious persecution. The large Chinese new religious movement I-Kuan Tao was persecuted, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan was harassed, and the Christian community of Mount Zion in Kaohsiung was targeted by a violent raid. Even after the end of the Martial Law, there were still some cases of religious persecution.
Today, the Taiwanese government has introduced a draft law on religious groups. Spiritual and religious groups are organizations that include both people and property. The Taiwanese government’s aim is that religious groups will disclose their finances. However, this draft law has made many religious groups feel offended. It is necessary to have expensive accountants to record in detail the income and the flow of funds. Religious and spiritual groups are non-profit organizations completely different from commercial activities. It is unreasonable to treat them as if they were normal commercial businesses.
In Taiwan, public support for the draft law on religious groups is mainly based on past scandals about money, sexual abuse, and other illegal activities perpetrated by some religious groups. However, there is some confusion here. Crime is one of the situations that can occur in human society, and it is punished by the law. To commit crimes is not the inherent nature of religious groups. If they commit crimes, religious organizations and leaders are punished by the already existing general laws. There is no reason for special laws targeting religious groups specifically and limiting their freedom.
4. The Tai Ji Men case and transitional justice—Cases of religious persecution in Taiwan
As you have heard through the other papers in this session, the Tai Ji Men case was part of a politically motivated crackdown on religious and spiritual movements that happened in 1996. The Martial Law had been repealed in 1987, the first democratic elections for the Legislative Yuan were held in 1992, and the first democratic presidential elections in 1996. However, the purge against religious minorities that had not supported the candidate of the ruling party in 1996 demonstrates in itself that at the end of that year Taiwan was still living in a post-authoritarian phase of its history.
This is important for the issue of transitional justice. In recent years, the problem of transitional justice has been widely discussed internationally. Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party government passed the “Promoting Transitional Justice Act” in 2017. The name “transitional” refers to the transition from an autocratic to a democratic political system. Cases of political persecution under the past system need to be investigated and redressed. However, this law only considers cases of political persecution from 1945 to 1992, from the end of Japanese colonial rule (1945) to the day before the lifting of martial law in Kinmen, Matsu Islands (1992). Human rights abuses that occurred after 1992 are not covered, including the 1996 crackdown on religious minorities.
This limitation to pre-1992 violations of human rights is a serious restriction of the effectiveness of transitional justice in Taiwan. It also contrasts with the two main United Nations human rights covenants, the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). As you know, Taiwan is not a member state of the United Nations. However, it incorporated the two covenants into its domestic law in 2009.
5. Future development of human rights reform in Taiwan
As you heard in the previous paper of this session, moving from their own case, Tai Ji Men dizi (disciples) met many others who are also suffering due to the unfair tax system in Taiwan and the insufficient protection of taxpayers’ rights. They have also worked with domestic and foreign experts, as well as non-governmental organizations, through the Tax and Legal Reform League. The Tai Ji Men case has become a mirror through which other cases of tax injustice can be noticed, denounced, and rectified.
This citizens’ movement has achieved some results. For example, after a series of representations and petitions, the “Taxpayer Rights Protection Act,” which had been stuck in the Legislative Yuan for nearly five years, was finally passed in 2016. International experts have increasingly scrutinized how Taiwan is implementing the two United Nations Covenants after it incorporated them into its domestic law. Taiwan’s regulations on exit restrictions have been revised, and it is now more difficult to prevent Taiwanese citizens from traveling abroad due to pending tax cases. Prominent tax law experts have acknowledged that this result was largely achieved thanks to Tai Ji Men’s efforts and the national discussion on the Tai Ji Men case.
For others, this may be a technical issue only. For Tai Ji Men dizi, however, it is part of a broader fight for conscience and justice that ultimately promotes the balance of Yin and Yang.
A new President and a new Parliament were inaugurated in the last month of May in Taiwan. For Taiwan, being acknowledged as a beacon of democracy in the area and a country where freedom of religion or belief is respected is strategically important. We hope that the international community will continue to pay attention to the Tai Ji Men case as a test for Taiwan and a challenge that the new President and Parliament should hopefully confront and solve.
