Falun Gong: From the Yangmingshan Flower Clock to Zhongnanhai and Taipei 101 — A Cross-Strait Prism

30-second overview:
On April 25, 1999, ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners staged a peaceful petition at Beijing's Zhongnanhai, after which the CCP launched a crackdown lasting more than two decades. But across the strait, Falun Gong in Taiwan started from a small practice spot on Yangmingshan and grew into a group with hundreds of thousands of practitioners, highly protected by the constitution. This article explores how Falun Gong took root in Taiwan and became the sharpest prism for observing cross-strait differences in religious freedom.

At 6:30 AM on April 27, 1995, near the flower clock on Yangmingshan in Taipei, a couple — Cheng Wen-huang and Ho Lai-chin — hung up a banner handwritten by their daughter Cheng Hui-wen reading "Falun Dafa is Good," and played slow practice music¹. At that time, the number of Falun Gong practitioners in all of Taiwan could be counted on one hand. Four years later, this practice that emphasizes "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" would trigger a world-shaking political storm in Beijing and completely change the fates of hundreds of thousands across the strait.

Origins: "Golden Seeds" Brought Back from Jinan

Falun Gong's origin in Taiwan was a search across the strait. In June 1994, Ho Lai-chin and her husband Cheng Wen-huang traveled to Jinan, China, to attend an eight-day teaching session at Huangting Stadium led by Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi¹. After returning to Taiwan, they established the first practice site on Yangmingshan.

Between 1995 and 1999, Falun Gong's development in Taiwan was relatively slow, relying mainly on word of mouth among practitioners and free volunteer instruction. This mode of transmission — no thresholds, no fees, no compulsory membership — fit highly with Taiwan's post-martial-law society seeking spiritual sustenance. By early 1999, total practitioners in Taiwan numbered just over ten thousand².

In November 1997, Li Hongzhi personally visited Taiwan, giving talks at Sanxing Elementary School in Taipei and Wufeng Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School in Taichung — ten hours total — with nearly a thousand Taiwanese practitioners able to hear him directly³. Practitioners called this visit the planting of "golden seeds," laying the foundation for Falun Gong's development in Taiwan.

Cross-Strait Watershed: 1999's Reversal of Fate

1999 was the watershed of fate for cross-strait Falun Gong practitioners. On April 25, more than ten thousand practitioners staged a peaceful petition at Beijing's Zhongnanhai, seeking a legitimate practice environment. Subsequently, the CCP launched more than two decades of systematic persecution, including illegal detention, torture, and allegations of "live organ harvesting" raised by international independent investigators⁴.

The CCP's reasons for the crackdown were that the group was "tightly organized" and its "large numbers" threatened the regime. In Taiwan, this same "large numbers" was viewed as the norm of religious freedom. The CCP's crackdown actually produced a "reverse propaganda effect," prompting massive attention from Taiwanese society to the issue, with practitioner numbers surging accordingly. By 2003, Taiwan's practitioner count had grown to about 300,000². Today, in Daan Forest Park, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, and even at remote rural elementary school playgrounds, you can see practitioners quietly practicing in the morning light as part of daily scenery.

Data Transparency: Self-Reporting vs. External Observation

Regarding the number of Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan, there is a long-standing data gap. The Taiwan Falun Dafa Association (Judicial Yuan registration No. 1760) self-estimates total practitioners between 300,000 and 600,000⁵. However, the US State Department's 2023 International Religious Freedom Report explicitly states that although the association claims large numbers, "some scholars say the number is an overestimate"⁶.

A more verifiable "active indicator" is its large events. On October 18, 2025, more than 5,000 practitioners from Taiwan, the US, Canada, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong formed a giant "Falun pattern" with a diameter exceeding 66 meters at Liberty Square in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei⁷; the association also holds an annual experience-sharing conference at year-end, with attendance over the years between six thousand and six thousand four hundred⁸. These data reflect the scale of its core community, though total practitioner numbers still lack precise independent third-party statistics.

Taiwan Characteristics: Academic Elite and Formal Association

Unlike the CCP narrative of Falun Gong practitioners being mostly "deceived grassroots," Falun Gong in Taiwan displays a strong intellectual character.

NTU Department of Economics Professor Yeh Shu-chen was among the earliest Taiwanese scholars to practice, subsequently influencing colleagues in the same department Chang Ching-hsi and Liu Ying-chuan, as well as Department of Political Science Professor Emeritus Ming Chu-cheng and Department of Journalism Professor Chang Chin-hua, among others⁹. These elite scholars showed rational identification with the Zhuan Falun's doctrines on "cultivation of mind nature" and "cosmology," considering its "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" principle to combine fitness and moral elevation, resonating with Taiwanese intellectual circles' post-martial-law pursuit of the spiritual dimension.

In legal terms, although the AIT report mentions its registration as a sports organization¹⁰, the group was actually formally established as the "Taiwan Falun Dafa Association," with Professor Chang Ching-hsi serving as the first chairperson¹¹. This formal juridical-person status gives it complete organizational rights under Taiwan's legal framework, in direct contrast to the CCP's designation as an "illegal organization."

Legal Protection: "Quiet Resistance" Under the Constitution

The legality of Falun Gong in Taiwan has been confirmed at the legal level multiple times. In 2015, Judicial Yuan Interpretation No. 734, regarding a case in which practitioners were fined for hanging banners in public spaces, ruled that the relevant notice was unconstitutional, protecting their freedom of speech¹².

In addition, the Taiwan High Court ruled that Chou Ching-chun, head of the pro-Communist group "Patriotic Compatriot Association," who criticized Falun Gong with defamatory statements, must compensate and publicly apologize to Chang Ching-hsi and others. On April 25, 2015, the apology notice was published in United Daily News and China Times on every section¹³. These judgments establish a core principle: Article 11 (freedom of speech) and Article 13 (religious freedom) of the Constitution protect citizens' rights to practice and tell the truth in public spaces. The Taiwanese government has never listed Falun Gong as an illegal organization, in core contrast with the CCP's "610 Office" suppression.

Conclusion: Touchstone of Religious Freedom

Today, in front of the Taipei 101 building, Falun Gong practitioners have long set up boards exposing CCP persecution. Although these methods of advocacy spark some debate within Taiwan and are even seen by some media as overly politicized¹⁴, mainstream Taiwanese society generally treats them as expressions of personal practice freedom.

The quiet existence of Falun Gong in Taiwan is itself one of the most powerful forms of silent resistance to totalitarian rule across the strait. As the US State Department continues to list China as a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC) for religious freedom, Taiwan's tolerance of Falun Gong has become the most distinctive touchstone of this island's democratic values.

Further reading

• United Front Tour Groups — From discount tours to influencer traffic, the old and new operations of CCP's united-front strategy and the cognitive contest logic.
• Cognitive Warfare — The systematic framework of cognitive operations and Taiwan's response mechanisms, from academic analysis to civic education practice.

References