LATEST ARTICLES
Tai Ji Men’s Dragon Dance as a Multilayered Performative Act
The numerous interpretative layers of Tai Ji Men’s Dragon Dance underscore the cultural-anthropological meanings of enacting the creation and re-creation of the universe.
Taiwan’s Religious Liberty Problems, Tai Ji Men Case Discussed in Kaunas, Lithuania
The final session of the conference “Nation Building and Cultural Diversity in East Asia” at Vytautas Magnus University explored unsolved Taiwanese issues of freedom of religion or belief.
The Road to the United Nations: It All Started with Religion, Bureaucrats, and Taxes
A significant predecessor of the United Nations was the Permanent Court of Arbitration. It was established in a hurry to decide a case about gifts to the Catholic Church that Mexico had decided to tax retroactively.
The Tai Ji Men Case in Taiwan. 2. Legal and Economic Analysis
Legal mistakes not only created injustice but also caused unnecessary costs and unfavorable economic consequences for both Tai Ji Men and Taiwan’s society.
The Tai Ji Men Case in Taiwan. 1. Introduction
Tai Ji Men’s positive contribution to the international image of Taiwan has been highly significant. Yet, it has continued to be harassed through ill-founded tax bills.
“Public Trial by All” for Tai Ji Men. 5. The Root Causes of a Dysfunctional Tax System
In the program of which we publish a transcript, an expert suggested that Taiwan’s tax bureaucracy is dominated by graduates from National Chengchi University’s Department of Public Finance, while law graduates are under-represented.
“Public Trial by All” for Tai Ji Men. 4. Unlawful Tax Collection Is a Crime
In the program of which we publish a transcript, a lawyer explains why what happened in the Tai Ji Men Case falls under Article 129 of Taiwan’s Criminal Code, punishing the crime of unlawful collection.
“Public Trial by All” for Tai Ji Men. 3. Courts Where Taxpayers Never Win
That courts can accept the obviously false argument that Tai Ji Men is a cram school was explained in the program of which we publish a transcript with the systemic pro-government bias of Taiwan’s administrative courts.
“Public Trial by All” for Tai Ji Men. 2. Why Taichung’s High Administrative Court Was Wrong
In the second part of the transcript of a Taiwanese program, a lawyer explains the mistakes made by the Taichung judges in their controversial decision.
Calling for a Solution of the Tai Ji Men Case
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.
FUTURE EVENTS
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a chronology
“The Tai Ji Men Case” web site is a project by Action Alliance to Redress 1219 whose aim is to collect and put at the readers’ easy disposal articles, documents, and videos—from academic studies to magazine articles—about the case of Tai Ji Men, a mempai (similar to a school) of qigong, martial arts, and self-cultivation headquartered in Taiwan, which has been victim of discrimination and persecution in its home country since 1996, and whose street protests have generated widespread international protests. Here you can find an exhaustive chronology of the case.
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