Profile

Dr. Chen Li-an is a veteran senior politician and prominent figure in Taiwan's Buddhist circles. He is the eldest son of the war hero Chen Cheng (1897-1965) who was Taiwanese Vice President and top military assistant to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975). Chen Li-an is well-known as one of Taiwan’s famously privileged “Four Princes.”

From 1988-95 Chen Li-an held several senior governmental posts as a member of the Kuomintang, including Minister of Defence from 1990-93. He served on the Mainland Affairs Council and travelled to mainland China several times, e.g. during negotiations on the 1992 consensus on the “one China principle” of cross-strait reunification. He also ran as an independent candidate in Taiwan’s 1996 presidential election.

Chen Li-an dedicated his career, fortune, and family to advance the cause of unity among China’s people and territories, through the use of investment, politics, and in particular, Buddhism, leveraging his wide-ranging personal, political and financial ties with Buddhist leaders and their institutions. In this regard, it is essential to understand how three important figures influenced Chen Li-an to adopt Buddhism to advance his goals: Master Sheng Yen (1931-2009), Master Hsing Yun (b.1927), and Ms Sun Chun-hua (d.2017).

Master Sheng Yen

Master Sheng Yen founded the Buddhist organisation Dharma Drum Mountain and was one of the four most prominent modern Buddhist masters in Taiwan (along with Master Hsing Yun, Master Cheng Yen and Master Wei Chueh) popularly referred to as the “Four Heavenly Kings” and heads of the “Four Great Mountains.” Sheng Yen played an essential role in interconnecting many key players in the revival of “Humanistic” Han Buddhism, and in facilitating the inclusion of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism within its doctrinal view and corresponding political sphere. Among the numerous Taiwanese clerics who participated in the PRC’s Buddhist revival, it was Sheng Yen who was most trusted to teach at the Chinese Buddhist Academy founded by Zhao Puchu (1907-2000), to whom he was without doubt an eternally loyal ambassador.

Hence, it is no surprise that Sheng Yen knowingly cooperated with many Buddhist Association of China (BAC) executive colleagues, as well as with officials of the State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) and the United Front Work Department (UFWD), all involved in the Sinicization of Tibetans. It should be understood that the Humanistic Buddhist revival does not belong to a single person but is a well-structured and intercommunicative movement, which gathers coherently several very wealthy, intelligent and powerful monks, in a mutually supportive relationship with Beijing, all working successfully with a very long-term perspective.

Although Sheng Yen looked like a retiring person, of almost unassuming appearance, his political role should not be underestimated, especially thanks to his background in Military Intelligence, in which he served for 10 years under the command of General Sun Li-jen (1900-90), nicknamed “Rommel of the East.”

Sheng Yen was able to extend his vast guanxi to encompass many influential figures, Chen Li-an being among the most prominent. As revealed in his memoirs, he met with Chen Li-an for the first time in 1975 in the U.S., and again shortly after in Taiwan. But he regretted having missed the opportunity to convert him to Humanistic Buddhism right away. This would eventually happen thanks to Sun Chun-hua, Chen Li-an’s paramour. Also, thanks to her Chen Li-an and Sheng Yen would meet again in Taiwan, in the early 1990s. This meeting was made possible through their common link with Master Wei Chueh, of whom Sun Chun-hua was both a senior disciple and the lay president of his Lin-quan Temple organisation, established in 1987.

Chen Li-an and Sheng Yen worked with some intensity. At first, Sheng Yen was worried about “the lack of a worldwide-unified administrative organisation for Buddhism and the absence of planned and hierarchical education systems and scales.” For him, to be satisfied with a mere occasional and temporary faith in Han Buddhism was not enough. He wished to lay the foundation for a long-term “universality” of Humanistic Buddhism with Chinese characteristics. On top of his extensive and powerful guanxi, Chen Li-an had accumulated the two qualities of being (i) a Buddhist practitioner and (ii) a specialist in education, as a former Dean of the Taiwan University of Technology, a former Minister for administration of education, and a former Chairman of the Taiwan National Science Council, etc.

This background was certainly the primary reason for Sheng Yen to seek Chen Li-an’s support. He required his assistance to help him systematise and raise the Han Mahayana approach of instruction to a level comparable to that of the Tibetan Vajrayana. During a 6-year retreat, Sheng Yen had deeply studied the Tibetan scriptures and their practices. But despite his interest and respect for them, he would profess that Vajrayana was mixed up with Hindu Tantra and therefore not as pure as Mahayana.

In other words, he convinced Chen Li-an to be part of the Chinese institutionalisation of Humanistic Buddhism, including within it the Tibetan Vajrayana, but as a component of Chinese religion and culture.

It would be Sun Chun-hua (and her political backers) who would find the right words to activate Chen Li-an’s interest in the funding of Tibetan Buddhism, for the dual purpose of learning from it and Sinicizing it. This is what would lead Chen Li-an to take part in the fate of Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, in line with Beijing’s road-map.

Sun Chun-hua

Sun Chun-hua (also known as Sun Jushi (孙居士) and Demǔ (地母) “Earth Mother”) was a discreet yet pivotal figure in Taiwan’s Buddhist Circles, with many powerful connections. A lay preacher of Humanistic Buddhism, she became Chen Li-an’s paramour of 10 years (Chen Li-an’s wife, Chen Caoqian, lived separately while Chen Li-an and his children went to live with Sun Chun-hua). With great care, Sun Chun-hua would oversee his conversion to Buddhism and introduction to many influential Buddhist clerics. In 1990 they established the Hwayue Foundation, which grew into a very active organisation promoting the fusion of Han and Tibetan Buddhism in Taiwan. It would later become a vehicle for the promotion of Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje, his projects, and many lamas belonging to his Kagyu sect.

For her own part, Sun Chun-hua always cultivated secrecy concerning herself. It is therefore quite difficult to uncover much personal information, although she used to work in the media, as did her famous brother Sun Dawei (孫大偉) (1951-2010). She was the wife (or possibly merely partner) of the late Taiwanese movie director Liu Weibin (劉維斌) (1932-2006), who produced Buddhist videotapes for Master Hsing Yun in the 1980s and provided communications advice to the KMT.

Only her close friends and family know in which actual circumstances she became active in Beijing’s Buddhist revival system, and why she became the first woman to serve as the lay president of patriotic Master Wei Chueh’s organisation as well as at Master Hsing Yun’s strategic “Donations Department.” The warm relations she maintained with the Buddhist Association of China (BAC) and her connections with Mainland Buddhist networks are also only lightly publicised.

It seems that it was their mutual friend Zheng Xinxiong (鄭心雄) (1941-1991) (sometimes written Cheng Hsin-hsiung), who gave the mission to Sun Chun-hua to recruit Chen Li-an for the benefit of the Buddhist Circles and hence to make him a Buddhist activist within a political frame.

Zheng Xinxiong and Chen Li-an knew each other very well, both having worked for the National Taiwanese University (NTU) and having held important functions within the Kuomintang (KMT). Both of their fathers were in the military. Chan Li’an’s father was General Chen Cheng (as mentioned above) and Zheng Xinxiong’s father Zheng Jiemin (鄭介民) (1897-1959) acted as the deputy to the KMT army secret service in China under spymaster Dai Li (1897-1946), becoming a 3-Star General and the first Director General of the Republic of China’s National Security Bureau (i.e. “Taiwan’s CIA”).

Both were well-aware of the Tibetan situation. In their capacity as close generals to Chiang Kai-shek, in the post-war years (1945-1947), they were personally involved in the messy Tibetan negotiations with the competing regents Reting Rinpoche (1910-1947) and his rival Taktra Rinpoche (1874–1952).

On top of this, Zheng Xinxiong was not an ordinary person. From 1984, he served as director of the Taiwanese Central Overseas Work Association (Taiwan’s equivalent to the Mainland UFWD) and, followed in his father’s footsteps as a spymaster; he was officially in charge of intelligence operations and a known intelligence enforcer to Taiwan’s President Chiang Ching-kuo (1910-1988).

Where it gets quite interesting is when it is learned that Chiang Ching-kuo, although a son of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, was actually a classmate of Deng Xiaoping from the times they studied together in Moscow. Chiang Ching-kuo was in fact a true Communist. He studied at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow for two years, and then decided to stay ten more years in Soviet Russia (1925-1937), marrying a Belorussian wife (Faina Ipat'evna Vakhreva) and even received the Russian name Nikolai Vladimirovich Elizarov! Moreover, Deng Xiaoping was his direct chief in their Communist Youth League team (Komsomol). 

Chiang was not alone, for instance Deng Wenyi (鄧文儀) (1905-1998), also a former student at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, would become Chiang Ching-kuo’s Minister of Administration within the Interior Ministry, hence responsible for the implementation of “Taiwan Land Reform,” the master project led by General Chen Cheng (Chen Li-an’s father). This explains why Chen Li-an always had an excellent relationship with the Chiang family: his father was not only one of the most trusted generals of Chiang Kai-shek but also became Chiang’s Vice President for nine years (1954-1965), the very reason why Chen Li-an is counted among Taiwan’s famous privileged “Four Princes”. Indeed, guanxi always reflects a small world and its inescapable framework of power, so deeply rooted in Chinese society that it explains how a fully-fledged Trotskyite like Chiang Ching-kuo could become the President of a liberal Taiwan for 10 years.

Of course, Deng Xiaoping gave Chiang Ching-kuo the so-called “Big Blow” when he convinced the U.S. to formally establish diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic of China in January 1979 and consequently obliged the Americans to cut off diplomatic relations with the “Republic of China” government. But Chiang Ching-kuo was well prepared for such an event and, only few short weeks later on Chinese New Year, the National People’s Congress issued a tempting “Solicitation on Taiwan Compatriots” proposing that “the two sides open economic and trade, travel, and postal services.”

Chiang Ching-kuo had no reason to disavow his comradeship with Deng Xiaoping. To show him his full support, he lifted the ban on travel to and investment in the Mainland, hence activating his wealthy Taiwanese compatriots, including some prominent Buddhists, to invest there. He justified this lift with the kind of ambiguous formula that Chinese enjoy: “to be more anti-communist we have to become less anti-communist.” And because at this time it was still too early for him to visit Mainland China, he nevertheless paved the way to make it possible soon afterwards. It would not be by chance that one of the first official visits to Beijing would be undertaken by their other loyal classmate Deng Wenyi (the former Minister for Land Reform), who would bring to Beijing the commitment to promote a peaceful reunification across the Taiwan Strait. He would visit the Mainland on two occasions, welcomed by Deng Xiaoping in the Great Hall of the People like a Head of State in 1990, and again by Jiang Zemin the year after.

All in all, because of such a direct link with Beijing, the introduction arranged by Zheng Xinxiong between Sun Chun-hua and Chen Li-an cannot be seen as merely coincidental. When he made this introduction, most probably in early 1988, Sun was already seen as a fully qualified Humanistic Buddhist instructor, from every angle, and Chen Li-an admitted in great detail, in a speech he gave at the temple of Master Chuan Xiao (传孝) (d. 2011), that he was totally “under her leadership.”

Most likely, Zheng Xinxiong was on government duty and time was running short because Chiang Ching-kuo had just passed away in January 1988. Hence, it is surely no accident that immediately after Chen Li-an agreed to follow Sun Chun-hua into the Buddhist Circles, his political ascent proved dazzling.

On 20 July 1988, he was appointed as the Administrative Council member of the Executive Yuan (the executive branch of Taiwan’s government) and the head of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. In 1989, the “Return to GATT Strategy Group” was formed by three of the “Four Princes”, including Chen Li-an, (the two others were the Foreign Affairs Minister Lien Chan (連戰) (b. 1936), and Taiwan representative to the U.S., Qian Fu (錢復) (aka Fredrick F. Chien, b. 1935)). It was a crucial mission for him, perfectly coinciding with the period of Taiwanese mass investment in Mainland China that he personally presided over.

For instance, Chen Li-an sent his brother Chen Lu-jie to promote the Chengdu National Cross-straits Technology Industrial Development Park of Wen Jiang. 

Interestingly, Chengdu is close to Tibetan inhabited areas, a region that Chen Li-an already knew since at least 1990. An article in the Macau Times dated 3 January 2003, confirms it was this very year (1990) that, through the Chinese Culture Promotion Society, Chen Li-an organised fundraising for the benefit of the “Hope Primary School,” dedicated to disabled children, located near Lhasa, in cooperation with the mainland Civil Affairs Department of Lhasa. Through this operation he raised Taiwan's concern for the Chinese nation (Tibet being understood as an inseparable part of it), and he created his first contacts with Tibetans with whom he would soon meet again.

From June 1990 to February 1993, Chen Li-an served as Taiwan’s first civilian Minister of Defence to promote the “nationalisation” of the army, formerly the “Kuomintang troops.” During this very period, he also signed a U.S. $2.8 billion deal for six French Lafayette-class warships, which would become the famous bribery scandal of the same name. He was involved in the negotiations from August 1989 in his capacity of Minister of Economic Affairs, and was received by French officials in the lounge of the Paris Palace George V hotel, according to the French journalist Béatrice Hibou. He was also involved in another huge scandal concerning the purchase of U.S. and French military aircraft. But when it was the duty of the Control Yuan (the agency which monitors the other branches of Taiwan’s government) to investigate the matter, it was he, Chen Li-an, who was its President (appointed February 1993), hence in charge of controlling his own misdeeds. He would keep this position until September 1995, thus it came as no surprise that his investigation achieved no results.

From 1993 Chen Li-an made more than 200 speeches each year, calling for ethics, clearly influenced by Humanistic Buddhism.

As mentioned above, Chen Li-an benefited from his father’s powerful guanxi, including the protection from the multi-billionaire Wang Yung-ching (1917-2008), president and main owner of the petrochemical and plastics “Formosa Group.” With a Forbes estimated net worth of U.S. $6.8 billion, he was one of the richest men in Taiwan by the time he passed away. It was Wang who appointed Chen Li-an, at the very beginning of his career, as headmaster of the Ming-chi Technology College, which he owned. Interestingly, the biography of Wang Yung-chin discloses that he was a main sponsor of the “Hope Primary Schools” project (supported by Chen Li-an as detailed above). Wang also endorsed Chen Li-an for President during Taiwan's 1996 election, which means that Chen Li-an’s work was satisfactory to him, especially his very deep involvement in reunification via the Buddhist Circles.

Wang Yung-ching was also another very close friend of Deng Xiaoping. When Wang Yung-ching travelled to Beijing for the first time in 1989 (with a U.S. $7 billion project in his brief case), Deng came to greet him personally at the airport and made the very compelling remark: “If more than two or three Wang Yung-chings were involved, things on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait would be much easier.”

However, it was only four months after the Tienanmen bloodbath, and Lee Teng–hui, then president of Taiwan, blocked the deal. Nonetheless, others would follow. Later, Wang split the investment into smaller projects and built over 30 companies in China, the total investment surpassing U.S. $500 million. His biggest investment was the U.S. $3 billion Hwa Yang power plant located in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province. This was already during the times of leader Jiang Zemin’s power. According to the testimony of his own son Winston Wang, Wang Yung-ching also met Jiang Zemin. They were so closely connected that Winston Wang soon started some business with Jiang Zemin’s son: Jiang Mianheng. Again, a generational symmetry revealed by the power of guanxi.

It is no surprise then, that Chen Li-an would confess in an interview that he had a friendly meeting with Jiang Zemin in Beijing, more than once and at least in the context of his candidacy for the Taiwan presidential election of 1996. He was also quoted endorsing Jiang Zemin’s position regarding Taiwan in these terms: “Jiang Zemin’s policy is simple: Taiwanese must admit they are Chinese and not resort to separatism. The rest of it is nothing frightful.”

Chen Li-an withdrew from the Kuomintang in 1996 to stand as an independent candidate in the presidential election, making clear that he adhered to the “One China” position. In other words, within a few years, he went from being a discreet civil servant to the position of a vocal supporter of Beijing policy. As such, his introduction to Sun Chun-hua by Zheng Xinxiong was certainly meant to dramatically raise Chen Li-an’s influence by dint of his political career, and the concurrent mutual support generated with the Buddhist Circles. Chen Li-an fully endorsed the goals of his backers, although he was not as successful as expected.

Ten years later, during a visit to the Fayuan Temple in Beijing in 2006, Chen Li-an talked about his work with Sun Chun-hua to propagate Buddhism in Taiwan, which he described as “a difficult experience” in which they did their best to “create an exchange between Tibetan Buddhism and Chinese Buddhism” in their publicity and communication work. Together with Zhang Weixin, president of the China Privately Owned Enterprises Co-operation Development Council, they met with Master Yi Cheng (一诚) (1927-2017), then President of the BAC. Yi Cheng praised Chen Li-an’s contributions to “cross-strait Buddhist unity,” as well as his large-scale promotion of Buddhism, comparing him to a “great Bodhisattva.” Regarding cross-strait reunification, Yi Cheng insisted “blood is thicker than water.”

Master Hsing Yun

Master Hsing Yun is another of Taiwan’s “Heavenly Kings,” who would also become a highly significant figure in Chen Li-an’s career. Notable for involving himself openly with Taiwanese and Chinese politics and actively supporting the political unification of Taiwan with Mainland China, Hsing Yun famously insisted that there are “no Taiwanese” because “Taiwanese are Chinese”.

Born in Mainland China in 1927, Hsing Yun fled to Taiwan during the Chinese civil war. In 1967 he founded the Fo Guang Shan (FGS) (佛光山) order, which today claims a million followers worldwide with 200 branch temples in 20 countries, controls its own universities, community colleges, kindergartens, a publishing arm, a daily newspaper and a television station in Taiwan.

Hsing Yun carries a great deal of weight in politics, as one of the most ardent proponents of “Humanistic Buddhism.” A lifelong political brother of BAC President Zhao Puchu, in March 1989, Hsing Yun first returned to the mainland where he and his delegation were first received in the Great Hall of the People by the President of the CPPCC, Li Xiannian (1909-1992) with Zhao Puchu and then welcomed by the new President of the PRC, Yang Shangkun (1907-1998).

As a former member of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang, Hsing Yun is a prominent Supporter of “One China Policy.” Regarding Tibet, he is a former member of the ROC Mongolian-Tibetan Cultural Center Foundation, and his position is crystal clear: “All the exiled Tibetans should support China.” Hsing Yun always maintained a close working relationship with the UFWD and SARA, for example via high profile cooperation with Ye Xiaowen (SARA Director 1995-2009). Furthermore, he has always been encouraged and promoted by Chinese top leaders, including Xi Jinping in person, for whom Taiwan’s reunification is top priority.

The power of Hsing Yun also relies on his relationship to money. He is proud to have generated tremendous wealth. To Hsing Yun “possessing wealth is a blessing and knowing how to spend wealth is wisdom.” His wealth is indeed phenomenal, as reflected by his Vatican-like headquarters complex, covering an area of more than 100 hectares, which includes a museum, a multitude of shrines, university buildings, libraries, offices, and even a cemetery. Officially, the Buddha monument alone cost around U.S. $350 Million to build, placing the total value of the complex much higher.

As such, it has always been within Hsing Yun’s power to sprinkle politicians with largesse quite openly, for example by supporting Chen Li-an’s run for Taiwan’s presidency in 1996 or funding the U.S. electoral campaign of al-Gore, also in 1996. In the latter case, it mattered little for Hsing Yun that it turned into a scandal when the money, channelled through his Los Angeles Hsi Lai temple, was deemed an illegal political campaign contribution.

It follows from the above that the political involvement of Hsing Yun goes in the same direction as Beijing, except that, sometimes, he retains his outspokenness. In an interview given in Beijing to Reuters in May 2008, he dared to say “The Dalai Lama is Tibet's spiritual leader. Politically, (China) should turn (him) from an enemy into a friend.” Of course, such advice does not endorse the Dalai Lama in any way regarding Tibetan autonomy.

In February 1990, as Minister of Defence, Chen Li-an attended the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei at the establishment of the Taiwanese Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA), of which Hsing Yun was appointed President. Chen was joined by current and former Taiwanese Ministers of the Interior and supported by a congratulatory telegram from Kuomintang President Li Teng-hui. In the early 1990s Chen Li-an’s Hwayue Foundation had provided funding for Hsing Yun’s projects such as his Buddha’s Light Monastery, and Hsing Yun reciprocated by lending his endorsement for Chen Li-an’s 1996 presidential bid.

Presidential Run

Due to his support for the reunification of Taiwan with China, Chen Li-an left the Kuomintang, and in 1996 stood as an independent presidential candidate. Chen Li-an and running mate Wang Ching-feng ran an unconventional campaign, managed by the Hwayue Foundation, which saw him walking for 18 days around Taiwan wearing a farmer’s hat. Projecting him as a clean and ethical politician and peace activist, it reshaped his image as a devout Buddhist and lay leader within FGS.

Soon after the campaign started, the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis erupted with Beijing announcing a round of missile testing as a signal to President Lee Teng-hui’s Kuomintang government and an intimidation of the Taiwanese electorate. Chen Li-an’s statement “if you vote for Lee Teng-hui, you are choosing war” echoed Beijing’s message.

Despite the support of Hsing Yun and Wei Chueh, Chen Li-an gathered only 10% of the vote. After his presidential bid was defeated, relying on his great reputation in the Buddhist world, he collected huge sums for mainland investments and “open an investment pipeline” for Buddhists, to “create wealth.” At first the operation gained the vigorous support of Chinese officials, but afterwards the company’s financial management showed problems, and it is claimed that the staff he employed didn’t receive their salary. Having failed to win the election, Chen Li-an formally retired from politics and disappeared for several months to Nepal.

Sun Chun-hua had facilitated a relationship between Chen Li-an and the influential Tibetan lama of the Kagyu sect, Thrangu Rinpoche, whose building projects she was already involved with in Nepal. In fact, due to her key position in the donation department within FGS, she was responsible for convincing Hsing Yun to invest in the Himalayan region, including Nepal and Ladakh. Being freer after 1996, Chen Li-an could dedicate himself more to another cause, namely uniting Ogyen Trinley Dorje (then recently appointed in Tibet by the Chinese authorities as the 17^th Karmapa incarnation) with the legendary Black Crown enshrined in Rumtek Monastery in the sensitive Indian state of Sikkim. This project had been shelved after an earlier unsuccessful foray in 1993. A matter of burning importance also for Thrangu, the subject was surely discussed between the two men during Chen Li-an’s time in Nepal.

The Road to Buddhahood

Throughout the 1990s Chen Li-an and Sun Chun-hua had been moving closer and closer into the orbit of Ogyen Trinley Dorje. When Sun Chun-hua passed away in the autumn of 2017, he recalled in a public message of condolence that he “knew her since his childhood.”

Sun’s daughter Liu Dongdong (劉東東) (b. 1975), under the decisive influence of her mother, had enrolled in the Hsing Yun's FGS Institute in 1989. In 1993 she received the religious name “Miao Rong” (妙融). Shortly after, she travelled to Tsurphu Monastery in Tibet with Sun Chun-hua as well as Chen Yu-chuen (陳宇全) (b.1978), the fourth son of Chen Lia-an, for an audience with Ogyen Trinley Dorje. It was only a year after his appointment by the Chinese authorities. Hsing Yun’s diary of 23 June 1994 records how he guided Sun Chun-hua in the use of her daughter in connection with Ogyen Trinley Dorje.

In 1994 Miao Rong and Chen Yu-chuen returned to Lhasa to commence intensive studies in Tibetan language and culture at the University of Tibet in the TAR Academy of Social Sciences (TASS). TASS is a provincial branch of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the PRC’s top “think tank” in the fields of intelligence and influence operating under the State Council. Since the 1960s CASS has been concerned with pushing forward Marxism in minority areas such as Tibet. Miao Rong studied under Professor Ciren Yangzom, a leading figure in the Tibetan Women’s Federation, a CCP entity promoting the Party’s policies and core values to women.

The 1990s was period of intensive crackdown in Tibet by the Ministry of State Security (“China’s KGB”). During this time the CCP implemented a policy to cultivate contingents of young “patriotic religious leaders,” particularly senior-ranking incarnate lamas such as the Karmapa and the Panchen Lama who, in the absence of the Dalai Lama, were regarded by Tibetans as the highest religious authorities. Simultaneously, initiatives of the CCP's United Front Work Department (UFWD) such as the Tibet Development Fund were already bringing in large sums of money from overseas “patriotic Tibetans” such as Akong Tulku (1939-2013) and his Rokpa Trust, as well as other international organisations, individuals and governments, to enrich the Tibet Autonomous Region with foreign money to support the CCP’s agenda of redeveloping Tibet with Chinese characteristics. As well as improving the fortunes of the officials involved, this foreign money was used to fund “cultural protection” projects, transforming or rebuilding buildings destroyed in the Cultural Revolution as museums showcasing Tibetan “folklore” to generate income from domestic and foreign tourism and pilgrimages.

One of the big projects of the Hwayue Foundation (as reported in the official BAC review “Fayin”) was to fund-raise and construct 27 km of sealed road to Tsurphu monastery, in order to facilitate pilgrimage. Tsurphu, unlike the Dalai Lama’s Potala Palace in Lhasa or the Panchen Lama’s Tashilhunpo monastery in Shigatse, was in a comparatively remote location and could not easily compete in terms of its potential to attract domestic and foreign tourism. Tsurphu was connected to National Highway G109 (the main route linking Lhasa and Beiijng) only by a treacherous dirt road that suffered heavy damage due to exposure to the elements. The long and uncomfortable journey by car or bus from Highway G109 was seen as an obstacle to enhancing the fame and prestige of the main seat of the Karmapa, whose status Beijing was keen to promote above that of the Dalai Lama inside Tibet as an asset in its control over Tibetan society. 

With the blessing of the Chinese authorities, the renovation of Tsurphu Monastery took place in the 1980s and early ’90s. This had been coordinated by “Overseas Patriotic Tibetans” and funded mainly by the contributions of Western disciples. Likewise, in the calculations of the Chinese authorities, the construction of a highway which was totally beyond the means of the local Tibetan population, would best be served by attracting foreign investment.

In his foreword to the book “Legend of Karmapa” (published in 2001 by Malaysian journalist Ho Jin, who died from a heart attack shortly after its completion), Chen Li-an stated that the need for a new road was already identified in the years immediately following Ogyen Trinley Dorje's instalment in Tsurphu by the Chinese authorities in 1992. Though his Hwayue Foundation, Chen Li-an organised an international fundraising initiative to build a road to Tsurphu. Chen Li-an had stated that in 1995, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (aged 10 at the time) had instructed him to help in broadening and asphalting the dirt road. The lengthy process of dealing with numerous corrupt layers of government (township, county and TAR levels) meant that the decision to start the work did not materialise for a further two years.

Reportedly Ogyen Trinley Dorje had personally chosen the name for the scheme: “The Road to Buddhahood.” The official fundraising campaign explained that this road symbolised the building of a “smooth highway to enlightenment” for all sentient beings, and that “a seed to enlightenment will be planted in the heart of everyone who contributes or participates.” The cost to build the 6-metre wide, two-lane highway-grade concrete road, including four bridges and 135 culverts was 30 Million yuan (U.S. $3.6 Million). Chen Li-an instructed his eldest son, Chen Yu-ting (陳宇廷) (b. 1964) to make a film introducing Ogyen Trinley Dorje “In order to facilitate fundraising” for the project. The resulting 1997 documentary "In Search of Shangri-La: Legend of the Karmapas" achieved an estimated circulation of 7-8 million copies in Mainland China and Taiwan.

The ground-breaking would occur in August 1998. Ogyen Trinley Dorje took delight in the works, especially in driving a bulldozer. The Deputy Mayor of Lhasa, Losang Jamcan (aka Lobsang Gyaltsen, who would later become Head of the UFWD in Tibet and then TAR Governor) confirmed that great economic benefit was expected for the region due to this road, which in his view would “further enhance the friendly exchanges between the people of Tibet and Taiwan compatriots.” 

The BAC’s journal Fayin published the speech at the ground-breaking ceremony made by Luo Zhu, Director of the Tsurphu Democratic Management Committee, in which he said that since 1992 the CCP Central Committee and the State Council, as well as the Party and government departments in Tibet have been “very concerned” about Tsurphu Monastery. Thanking the Hwayue Foundation, he added that all the believers must “devote themselves to the dharma, patriotism, and to make their own contributions to the prosperity of the motherland.” It should be noted that the very fact that Fayin reported this indicates that Chen Li-an's team was on official duty.

Subsequently Ogyen Trinley Dorje, together with Chen Li-an himself then laid the foundation stone for the road, which finally opened to traffic in 2000. Chen Li-an and his family were celebrated as heroes. Chen Li-an’s final public meeting with Ogyen Trinley Dorje, featured in the documentary “The Lion Begins to Roar,” were in Tibet in 1999, only a few months before Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s journey of exfiltration into India, the first 27 km of which was the smooth new road from Tsurphu Monastery to Highway G109.

Chen team’s continuity in India

Following Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s exfiltration in 2000 it wasn’t long before Chen Li-an’s team once again found themselves at his side. After only a very short period of learning, in 1997 Chen Li-an’s fourth son Chen Yu-chuen would be enlisted in the administration of Thrangu Rinpoche. Thrangu, an old friend of Chen Li-an and Sun Chun-hua with long-established links in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China, gave Chen Yu-chuen the Tibetan name Khenpo Tengye ("Khenpo" is a title given to senior qualified teachers of Tibetan Buddhism).

Due to his long-running cooperation with the exile Tibetan administration (for which he was honoured with the great distinction of being named “senior tutor” to Ogyen Trinley Dorje), it was easy for Thrangu inject Khenpo Tengye into the close circle of Ogyen Trinley Dorje once he arrived in India. Together with Miao Rong (both being executives of the Hwayue Foundation), he would serve as Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s Chinese translation secretariat and key adviser on the development of his fundraising activities, most importantly his annual "Kagyu Monlam" organised in Bodhgaya.

The Hwayue Foundation translates everything possible for, on and around Ogyen Trinley Dorje into Chinese language by means of films, books, lectures, websites etc. Hwayue is in fact the Taiwan branch of Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s personal administration, the “Kagyu Office.” It has also been one of the main sponsors of the Kagyu Monlam events, much of the supplies for which originate in Mainland China.

Last but not least, it organises a lot of pilgrimages around Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s person and centres. These pilgrimages commenced in the late 1990s during the time Ogyen Trinley Dorje was in Tsurphu and continued unabated while he was living in India. It is in the context of one of such pilgrimage that we learn more about the capacity of Sun Chun-hua and Chen Li-an to evade scrutiny by Indian intelligence and smuggle themselves into India. In June 2006, one of their incautious friends confessed on her blog that although the pilgrimage group had already arrived in Dharamsala to join Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s birthday party, “Mr. Chen Li-an and Ms. Sun Chun-hua were delayed due to their inability to enter the country, until the next morning. They then departed from the customs and boarded a tourist bus to travel to Dharamsala and meet Karmapa.”

As mentioned above, Sun Chun-hua also injected her daughter Miao Rong into India, Nepal and anywhere else necessary to follow and/or assist Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s activities connected with “the Integration of Han and Tibetan Buddhism,” in Miao Rong’s own words.

With such a role, they found themselves in the closest confidence with Ogyen Trinley Dorje, for over 15 years. Bearing in mind the direct ties of Chen Li-an and Sun Chun-hua with Beijing, it is easy to assess the quality of their observation post. Such appointment was a necessity because, as mentioned above, Chen Li-an and Sun Chun-hua were both banned from entering India. The reason for this was an incident in 1993 when Chen Li-an illegally entered the state of Sikkim, allegedly with large sum of cash for the purpose of bribing local officials to turn a blind eye to the hostile takeover of Rumtek Monastery by parties under the influence of the Chinese government.

As detailed above, when Chen Li-an was recruited into the Buddhist Circles, he brought his family in the same direction. Even before involving his youngest son Chen Yu-chuen (who was still too young), he convinced his eldest son Chen Yu-ting to become a monk. Master Wei Chueh conferred ordination on him in 1992, although it was a short-lived monkhood.

After quickly returning his vows, Chen Yu-ting followed his father to Tibet in the late 1990s, to make his documentary “In Search of Shangri-La – Legend of the Karmapas” (mentioned above). It is in this context that he met Yangjin Lamu whom he would later marry in 2002. The “Sino-Tibetan” wedding was held with great fanfare on 28 April 2002, described as a “grand dharma wedding” and “the wedding of a prince and princess”. It took place in the symbolic Beijing Hotel which had served the seat of the Kuomintang in the 1930s and later hosted Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai at the inauguration of the People’s Republic of China.

The narrative is quite simplistic: a wealthy Han heir and a poor Tibetan nomad girl are now related by marriage. The reality is more complex, and politically-oriented. Yangjin Lamu is allegedly a Tibetan native from Tianzhu, Gansu Province, the same region where the Dunhuang caves are located between Amdo and Mongolia, usually not counted as populated by ethnic Tibetans.

Her father was a leading official of the Gansu Province branch of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, which is responsible for relations between the PRC government and China’s ethnic minorities. Although apparently an uneducated nomad, she was able to create a start-up in pharmaceuticals. She introduced herself as the co-founder of a Chinese company producing “Made in Tibet” Chinese medicines, in Lhasa. The official website of this company, called Qizheng explains that it was founded in 1996 and headed by Ms. Lei Jufang. This context brought Yangjin Lamu into contact with and extend her guanxi to some of the highest-ranking Chinese leaders, including former Premier Li Peng (aka the “Butcher of Tiananmen”), Jia Qinglin, and Jiang Zemin.

In 2000, Yangjin Lamu unexpectedly switched from a promising pharmaceuticals career to Patriotic Tibetan folk singer, in a trio called the “Yangjinma Three Tibetan Sisters” (央姐玛藏族三姐妹组合).

The Yangjinma Sisters would go on international singing tours on Beijing’s payroll, organised by China’s Ministry of Culture, from North Korea to Japan, but also in Europe and the U.S. The group participated in the 2001 CCTV “Spring Festival Gala”, one of the premier annual television events in China with a viewership of over 700 million. In July 2001 the sisters accompanied a delegation headed by then Vice President Hu Jintao and Minister of Culture Sun Jiazheng to Lhasa to participate in the celebrations marking the fiftieth anniversary of the so-called “peaceful liberation of Tibet.”

Yangjin Lamu continued her musical career but in parallel began to work on another aspect of her patriotic cause to Sinicize Tibetans. People are asked to believe that Ogyen Trinley Dorje requested her marriage with Chen Li-an’s son. Was it for some task? She publicised their meeting in India in December 2005.

Soon afterwards, she would be involved in various activities connected with Chinese soft power under the guidance of Chen Li-an, most notably the establishment of the China Overseas Tibetan Association.

Network Links

• Chen Yu-ting
• Chen Yu-chuen
• Yangjin Lamu
• Sun Chun-hua
• Wang Yung-ching
• Jiang Zemin
• Yi Cheng
• Hsing Yun
• Sheng Yen
• Chia Theng Shen
• Miao Rong
• David Rockefeller
• Peggy Dulaney Rockefeller
• Tai Situ
• Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje
• Thrangu Rinpoche
• Hai Tao
• Dongbao Zhongba