• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / Tai Ji Men

Solving the Tai Ji Men Case Through Tolerance

11/28/2022Karolina Maria Hess |

An appeal that gathered significant support asks the authorities in Taiwan to find a political solution for the 22-year-long case.

by Karolina Maria Hess*

*Introduction to the webinar “Tolerance for Tai Ji Men,” co- organized by CESNUR and Human Rights Without Frontiers on November 16, 2022, United Nations International Day of Tolerance.

Tai Ji Men protests in Taiwan.
Tai Ji Men protests in Taiwan.

Today the United Nations celebrate the International Day of Tolerance, and we celebrate the success of an appeal for tolerance that I signed, together with other scholars, on June 13, 2022. The same appeal has now been signed by many distinguished Taiwanese scholars, and is having a significant impact in Taiwan.

It is not the first appeal on the Tai Ji Men case, but we hope it will be the last—not because we will give up (we will not) but because hopefully the case will finally be solved.

For those who do not know the case, as the appeal summarizes, Tai Ji Men was among the victims of a 1996 crackdown on those religious movements that were accused of not having supported the ruling party in Taiwan’s presidential elections. It was the last act of Taiwan’s post-authoritarian repression of independent spiritual groups. Tai Ji Men academies were raided and its Shifu (Grand Master) was arrested, together with the Shimu (his wife) and two dizi (disciples).

As the appeal continued to summarize, the Supreme Court eventually declared the Tai Ji Men defendants innocent of all charges, including tax evasion, and compensations was given to those unjustly arrested. However, the National Taxation Bureau continued to issue ill-founded tax bills that contradicted the Supreme Court’s verdict.

In 2020, based on one of these bills, sacred land of Tai Ji Men intended for a self-cultivation center was auctioned off and confiscated. Taiwan’s authorities claim that the confiscation is based on a final verdict, which cannot be revised. It is, however, a general principle of law, fairness, and human rights that patently unjust verdicts can always be re-examined, particularly when new facts and evidence have emerged, as it has happened in the Tai Ji Men case.

The appeal is not a technical or legal document. It calls for a political solution. We wrote that, “It is now time for leaving aside technicalities and finding a political solution, while protests by Tai Ji Men dizi continue in Taiwan and the United States, with thousands taking to the streets.”

We hope that, as scholars all over the world were moved by the Tai Ji Men case and the dizi’s 26-year-long fight for justice and mobilized to support them, a political solution will now be found.

Calling for a solution: Tai Ji Men protests in Taipei.
Calling for a solution: Tai Ji Men protests in Taipei.

We wrote that, “We join Tai Ji Men in respectfully asking the government of Taiwan, whose commitment to democracy in a region plagued by non-democratic regimes we appreciate and applaud, to return through a political act the confiscated sacred land to Tai Ji Men and publicly confirm that, as Taiwan’s Supreme Court stated, they never violated the law nor evaded taxes. It would be a small step for Taiwan’s government, but a crucial one to tell the world Taiwan is truly committed to freedom of religion or belief and to the protection of religious and spiritual minorities that were once persecuted by its authoritarian and post-authoritarian regimes.”

The International Day of Tolerance has been established to meditate on the terrible consequences of intolerance, but also to remember that intolerance can happen everywhere, including in democratic countries. The difference with totalitarian regimes is that democratic countries allow citizens to protest and may rectify their mistakes. Our webinar today asks the Taiwanese authorities to rectify what has been an obvious, if long, mistake.

Tagged With: Tai Ji Men, Taiwan

Karolina Maria Hess
Karolina Maria Hess

Karolina Maria Hess is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilizations, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland. She holds PhD in Philosophy and works on her PhD in Sociology. She specializes in New Religious Movements and Western Esotericism in Central and Eastern Europe.

Related articles

  • Conscience Education, Spirituality, and Tai Ji Men: An Emic View

    Conscience Education, Spirituality, and Tai Ji Men: An Emic View

  • To Taiwan from Friends: Correct Wrongdoings Against Tai Ji Men, Now

    To Taiwan from Friends: Correct Wrongdoings Against Tai Ji Men, Now

  • Truth, Transitional Justice, and the Persecution of Religious and Spiritual Minorities

    Truth, Transitional Justice, and the Persecution of Religious and Spiritual Minorities

  • Police  Raids, Media Slander, and the Tai Ji Men Case: Comparing Taiwan with Argentina

    Police  Raids, Media Slander, and the Tai Ji Men Case: Comparing Taiwan with Argentina

Keep Reading

  • The International Day Against Judicial and Tax Persecution By State Power at the United Nations
    The International Day Against Judicial and Tax Persecution By State Power at the United Nations

    A written statement at the UN Human Rights Council supports the proposal and reminds the international community that the Tai Ji Men case has not been solved yet.

  • “War and Peace” and the Tai Ji Men Case
    “War and Peace” and the Tai Ji Men Case

    Falsified by Stalin and now Putin, Tolstoy’s thought was that war is senseless but injustice remains intolerable and should be resisted through non-violent means.

  • The Right to Know the Truth on the Tai Ji Men Case
    The Right to Know the Truth on the Tai Ji Men Case

    The time has come to proclaim the truth on a serious case of blatant violation of freedom of religion or belief.

  • Peace for Tai Ji Men Means Peace for All Taiwan
    Peace for Tai Ji Men Means Peace for All Taiwan

    Peace is the most important expression of human sociality, and always goes hand in hand with justice. Peace in Taiwan needs a solution of the Tai Ji Men case.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • There Are Christian Uyghurs, Too: New Organization Launched in London by Ruth Ingram
  • The Last Words of a Uyghur Father: A Son’s Memory by Abdurehim Gheni Uyghur
  • Xi Jinping: Beijing’ National Art Museum Is Not Socialist Enough by Hu Zimo
  • Occupied Ukraine: Anti-Cult “Experts” Target Moscow Patriarchate Dissident Priest by Massimo Introvigne
  • Chinese Agents Tried to Bribe U.S. Tax Officer in Anti-Falun-Gong Plot by Massimo Introvigne
  • Russia: Lunatic Theory that Yellowstone Volcano Caused the War in Ukraine Gains Momentum by Massimo Introvigne
  • Vandalism Against Catholic Churches on the Rise in Bavaria by PierLuigi Zoccatelli

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY