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

30-Second Overview:
On April 25, 1999, 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners peacefully petitioned at Zhongnanhai in Beijing, after which the CCP launched a suppression campaign lasting over twenty years. However, across the strait, Falun Gong in Taiwan developed from a small practice site in Yangming Mountain 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 the differences in religious freedom between the two sides of the strait.

On the morning of April 27, 1995, at 6:30 AM, near the Yangming Mountain Flower Clock in Taipei, a couple, Zheng Wenhuan and He Laiqin, hung a banner handwritten by their daughter, Zheng Huiwen, reading "Falun Dafa is Good," and played slow qigong music¹. At that time, the number of people practicing Falun Gong in all of Taiwan was negligible. Four years later, this practice, emphasizing "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance," would trigger a political storm that shocked the world in Beijing, fundamentally changing the destinies of hundreds of thousands of people on both sides of the strait.

Origins: The "Golden Seed" Transmitted from Jinan to Taiwan

The origin of Falun Gong in Taiwan was a quest spanning the strait. In June 1994, He Laiqin and her husband Zheng Wenhuan traveled to Jinan, China, to attend an eight-day Dafa transmission class led by Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi at the Huangting Gymnasium¹. Upon returning to Taiwan, they established the first practice site in Yangming Mountain.

Between 1995 and 1999, the development of Falun Gong in Taiwan was relatively slow, relying primarily on word-of-mouth transmission and free voluntary teaching among practitioners. This mode of dissemination, which set no thresholds, charged no fees, and did not force conversion, aligned highly with the social environment of post-martial-law Taiwan, where people sought spiritual sustenance. By early 1999, the number of practitioners in all of Taiwan was only about 10,000².

In November 1997, Li Hongzhi personally visited Taiwan, giving Dafa lectures at Taipei Sanxing Elementary School and Wufeng Agricultural and Industrial High School in Taichung, totaling ten hours. At that time, nearly 1,000 Taiwanese practitioners had the opportunity to listen directly³. This visit was called by practitioners the sowing of the "golden seed," laying the foundation for the development of Falun Gong in Taiwan.

The Dividing Line Between the Two Sides: The Turning Point of 1999

1999 was the watershed year for the fate of Falun Gong practitioners on both sides of the strait. On April 25, more than 10,000 practitioners peacefully petitioned at Zhongnanhai in Beijing, seeking a legal environment for cultivation. Subsequently, the CCP launched a systematic persecution lasting over twenty years, including illegal detention, torture, and allegations raised by international independent investigators regarding "live organ harvesting"⁴.

The reason for the CCP's suppression was that its "tight organization" and "large number of people" threatened the regime. In Taiwan, such a "large number of people" is considered a normalcy of religious freedom. The CCP's suppression instead produced a "reverse propaganda effect," causing significant attention to this issue in Taiwanese society, leading to a surge in the number of practitioners. By 2003, the number of practitioners in Taiwan had grown to approximately 300,000². Today, in Da'an Forest Park, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, and even the playgrounds of elementary schools in remote areas, one can see the daily scene of practitioners quietly practicing in the morning light.

Data Transparency: Self-Claims vs. External Observations

Regarding the number of Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan, there has long been a data gap. The Legal Person Taiwan Falun Dafa Society (Judicial Yuan Registration Case No. 1760) estimates its total number of practitioners to be between 300,000 and 600,000⁵. However, the U.S. State Department's 2023 International Religious Freedom Report explicitly states that although the Society claims to have a large number of members, "some scholars say the number is an overestimate"⁶.

A more verifiable "active indicator" is its large-scale events. On October 18, 2025, more than 5,000 practitioners from Taiwan, the U.S., Canada, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, among other places, formed a giant "Falun Dafa" figure with a diameter exceeding 66 meters at the Liberty Square of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei⁷; the Society also holds an annual year-end experience exchange Dafa conference, with attendance numbers historically ranging between 6,000 and 6,400 people⁸. These data reflect the scale of its core community, although the total number of practitioners still lacks precise statistics from independent third parties.

Taiwanese Characteristics: Academic Elites and Formal Associations

Unlike the narrative in CCP propaganda that Falun Gong practitioners are mostly "deceived grassroots," Falun Gong in Taiwan exhibits a strong intellectual character.

Professor Ye Shuzhen of the Department of Economics at National Taiwan University (NTU) was one of the earliest Taiwanese scholars to practice, subsequently influencing colleagues in the same department such as Zhang Qingxi and Liu Yingchuan, as well as Ming Juzheng, Honorary Professor of the Department of Political Science, and Zhang Jinhua, Professor of the Department of Journalism⁹. These elite scholars demonstrated rational认同 (agreement) with the "mental cultivation" and "cosmology" in Zhuan Falun, believing that its principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance" combined physical fitness with moral elevation, resonating with the intellectual community in Taiwan that pursued spiritual levels after the lifting of martial law.

In terms of legal status, although the U.S. Embassy in Taiwan (AIT) report mentions its registered name as a sports group¹⁰, in reality, the organization has officially established itself as the "Legal Person Taiwan Falun Dafa Society," with Professor Zhang Qingxi serving as the first chairman¹¹. This formal legal person status grants it complete organizational rights under Taiwan's legal framework, forming a direct contrast with the CCP's designation of it as an "illegal organization."

Legal Protection: "Quiet Resistance" Under the Constitution

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

Additionally, the High Court of Taiwan has ruled that Zhou Qingjun, president of the pro-Beijing group "Patriotic Unity Association," must compensate and publicly apologize to Zhang Qingxi and others for defaming Falun Gong; on April 25, 2015, the apology notice was published in the United Daily News and the China Times¹³. These judgments established a core principle: Article 11 (Freedom of Speech) and Article 13 (Freedom of Religious Belief) of the Constitution protect people's rights to practice qigong and tell the truth in public spaces. The Taiwanese government has never listed Falun Gong as an illegal group, forming a core contrast with the suppression by China's "610 Office."

Conclusion: The Touchstone of Religious Freedom

Today, in front of Taipei 101, Falun Gong practitioners have long displayed billboards exposing the persecution by the CCP. Although these promotional methods exist in partial controversy within Taiwan, and are even viewed by some media as overly political¹⁴, mainstream Taiwanese society largely views them as an embodiment of personal freedom of cultivation.

The quiet presence of Falun Gong in Taiwan itself constitutes the most powerful silent resistance against the authoritarian rule on the other side of the strait. As the U.S. 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 distinct touchstone of the democratic values of this island.

Further Reading

• United Front Work — From low-cost tourism to influencer traffic, the new and old methods of the CCP's cross-strait united front operations and the logic of cognitive博弈 (game theory).
• Cognitive Warfare — The systematic framework of cognitive operations and Taiwan's corresponding mechanisms, from academic analysis to concrete practices in civic education.

References