An international webinar on the eve of UN International Day of Peace discussed the necessary connection between peace and justice, and the Tai Ji Men case.
by Daniela Bovolenta
An article already published in Bitter Winter on September 24th, 2024.
“No Peace Without Real Justice for Tai Ji Men.” This was the title of one of the webinars regularly organized by CESNUR and Human Rights Without Frontiers on the Tai Ji Men case. It was held on September 20, 2024, on the eve of the UN International Day of Peace.
The webinar, chaired by Marco Respinti, an Italian scholar who is the director-in-charge of “Bitter Winter,” was opened by a video with the message of UN Secretary General António Guterres for the International Day of Peace. Peace is never achieved automatically, Guterres said. It is always the result of human actions. The International Day of Peace is thus the day of a call to action.
In his introduction, Respinti connected the International Day of Peace with the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals, or the “Agenda 2030.” Respinti focuses on SDG number 16, “Peace, justice and strong institutions.” By analyzing UN documents on SDG 16, he noted that they imply that peace is not merely absence of war, and requires justice as a pre-condition. Respinti also criticized the listing of this goal as number 16 out of 17 SDGs, which may lead somebody to claim that the previous 15 SDGs are more urgent or important. He also noted that peace will be achieved only when justice will be implemented throughout the whole world, including where states are not members of the UN, such as in Taiwan. In fact, Respinti concluded, the Tai Ji Men case has now gained global notoriety, and its solution is one of the most urgent human rights and freedom of religion or belief issues internationally.
Respinti then introduced the first three speakers: Michele Olzi, a teaching assistant and research fellow at Italy’s University of Insubria; Christine Mirre, deputy director of the UN ECOSOC-accredited NGO Coordination des associations et des particuliers pour la liberté de conscience (CAP-LC); and Willy Fautré, co-founder and director of Human Rights Without Frontiers.
Olzi offered a short summary of the Tai Ji Men case. He criticized the recent verdict of the Taichung High Administrative Court as a failed opportunity to rectify two injustices: the imposition by Taiwan’s National Taxation Bureau of a fabricated tax bill for the year 1992 on Tai Ji Men; and the consequent seizure and nationalization in 2020 of sacred land in Miaoli belonging to Tai Ji Men. Drawing on the ideas of German scholar of conflict studies Susanne Buckley-Zistel, Olzi showed how these two injustices prove that Taiwan is still not able to effectively protect transitional justice and restorative justice, as it should do in its transition from an authoritarian to a fully democratic state. Granting restorative justice to Tai Ji Men, Olzi concluded, means taking two simple steps. First, Taiwan authorities should acknowledge that the 1992 tax bill was ill-founded and correct it to zero. Second, they should give back to Tai Ji Men the land in Miaoli, whose nationalization was a consequence of the fabricated tax bill.
Mirre noted how Secretary General Guterres’ message for the International Day of Peace resonates with the teachings on peace by Tai Ji Men’s Shifu (Grand Master), Dr. Hong Tao-Tze. Mirre examined Dr. Hong’s speeches for the International Day of Peace of 2021, 2022, and 2023, which all centered on the deep connection between conscience and peace. Mirre discussed how Tai Ji Men is itself the victim of actions where the primacy of conscience and the connection between justice and peace were denied by the Taiwanese bureaucrats who fabricated the Tai Ji Men case. She mentioned the written statement filed last month by her organization CAP-LC with the UN Human Rights Council, criticizing the unjust Taichung High Administrative Court decision. Solving the Tai Ji Men case, Mirre concluded, will go beyond local Taiwanese issues and greatly advance the cause of global human rights.
Fautré also reviewed the essential facts of the Tai Ji Men case and asked the question why such injustice was possible in democratic Taiwan. He answered that all transitions from an authoritarian to a democratic regime do not happen overnight. Laws can change, but minds change much more slowly. Not all such transitions are successful. Fautré noted the successful transition of Germany after Nazism and the much less successful transition after Communism in Russia, where many of the old authoritarian structures are still functioning. The Taichung High Administrative Court’s unjust decision, Fautré added, proves that the democratic transition of Taiwan is still not completed.
Respinti then introduced the second video of the webinar, about Jin dynasty general and politician Yang Hu. He lived in the 3rd century CE and was known for his integrity. He resisted the temptation to adopt the easy solution of raising taxes to support his army, and worked for the prosperity of his people. In Xiangyang the monument commemorating him is known as “The Weeping Stele,” as after his death people wept there remembering how benevolent his governance had been.
Respinti presented five Tai Ji Men dizi (disciples) who offered their testimonies. Tzyu Chou, a government Ethics Official, reported that inspired by Dr. Hong’s teachings on conscience, she chose a career where she acts as a watchdog trying to prevent bureaucratic corruption in public offices. She discussed the debate in Chinese philosophy between Mencius, who believed that human nature is basically good, and Xunzi, who argued that it is fundamentally evil, although good behavior can painfully be learned. She expressed her preference for Mencius’ position, as every human being has a conscience, although the voice of conscience can be suffocated when we only pursue our personal gain and fame. Dr. Hong’s basic message, she concluded, is about restoring conscience and integrity, which are also essential for peace and justice and for rectifying unjust situations such as the Tai Ji Men case.
Chuang Min-Chen, a university student, reported that she became a Tai Ji Men dizi and started advocating for tax reform in the streets when she was in junior high school. She experienced a conflict of narratives, between what she was told in school about Taiwan as an almost perfect democracy and the reality of tax injustice and the Tai Ji Men case. While passers-by something asked her why she was concerned with such serious matters at a very young age, in the end they were favorably impressed by the fact that young Taiwanese were willing to devote time to issues that were certainly impacting their future. She learned how to express the need for reform through songs and dances as well, and continues her advocacy work.
Alex Chou, who works as a manager, reported on the benefit he got from traveling to United States and, twice, to India with his Shifu to attend international peace events. Not only was he impressed by the dance performances of his Tai Ji Men sisters and the humility and compassion of the VIPs who attended the events. He also understood in depth how the generosity of Tai Ji Men dizi (disciples) such as himself, who self-fund these trips abroad, ultimately carries profound lessons and improve their lives. He also discussed the systemic problems of Taiwan’s tax system, focusing on the negative role played by the immoral systems of bonuses given to bureaucrats who quickly enforce more or less ill-founded tax bills. A solution of the Tai Ji Men case, Chou concluded, will carry the message that Taiwan seriously intends to reform its dysfunctional tax system.
Christina Kuo, a university student, commented Dr. Hong’s speech for the UN International Day of Peace 2022. Dr. Hong asked how we can bring the original trinity of Heaven, Earth and Humankind into harmony. He answered that there is a “panacea” solving this problem: conscience. She mentioned both negative and positive examples of human relations with conscience. Obviously, she said, the bureaucrats who fabricated the Tai Ji Men case had lost contact with their consciences. Conversely, she was impressed by world leaders who rang Tai Ji Men’s Bell of World Peace and Love and proved with their actions that they had not merely paid lip service to conscience. She mentioned Fradique de Menezes, President of São Tomé and Príncipe between 2003 and 2011, who rang the Tai Ji Men’s Bell in 2001. Later, in 2003, he wisely responded to a failed military coup by treating those who had organized it with forgiveness and lenience.
Pin Xie, another university student, reported his recent experience of attending the 40th anniversary of the World Conference of Mayors, held in August in Atlanta, Georgia. Since it was organized together with the 124th National Black Business Conference, attendees often asked Tai Ji Men dizi what they had to sell. They smiled when their answer was, “We sell peace and love.” He also learned from Dr. Hong that sometimes “bad things are not always bad.” The Tai Ji Men case, he said, was a “bad thing” but also taught dizi how to unite and work not only for the solution of their issue but for legal and tax reform and the betterment of society in general.
Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist and the editor-in-chief of “Bitter Winter concluded the webinar by reflecting on the motto “Pax Culture,” “Peace through Culture,” used by Russian painter and esoteric master Nicholas Roerich to promote the Roerich Pact, an international treaty acknowledging the inviolability of cultural properties in times both of peace and war. The three dots of Roerich’s “Banner of Peace” indicated the artistic, scientific, and religious-spiritual properties to be declared inviolable and protected. Eventually, the Roerich Pact became an inter-American treaty, signed by twenty-one countries of the Americas in 1935, but inspired subsequent UN and UNESCO statements. They clarify that religious and spiritual properties should not be protected only in war, but are inherently inviolable also in times of peace. Introvigne argued that Tai Ji Men’s land in Miaoli, which is clearly part of the category of “religious and spiritual properties,” should have been immune from seizure or nationalization. This is another case in which those who fabricated the Tai Ji Men case violated international law.
The webinar concluded with a musical video celebrating human rights for world citizens and Tai Ji Men’s global work to spread peace, love, conscience, and hope.