The residents of Prince Edward Island (PEI) in the eastern part of Canada have been struggling in recent years, with a “massive invasion” by groups of monks from mainland China and Taiwan. A Taiwanese Buddhist organization “Bliss and Wisdom” controlled by a mainland Chinese woman has been scooping up large parcels of land. At the same time, thousands of business immigrants from China started to arrive in PEI. Who are the people behind this organization? Are they tied to the CCP? Is it a CCP Belt-and-Road type of invasion hidden in monks’ robes? The answers are more complex than what meets the eye.
PEI’s encounter with a legion of monks
PEI is the smallest and most densely populated province in Canada, with a population of only about 174,000. The Island is dotted with family farms and has a unique law, the Lands Protection Act, which was enacted in the early 1980s to prevent individual landowners from dominating the Island. The law caps land purchases by corporations or affiliated corporate groups at 3,000 acres and personal land purchases at 1,000 acres. Non-residents are limited to purchasing five acres.
However, after the arrival of “Foo Chi” (福智) or Bliss and Wisdom organization from Taiwan in 2008, many islanders saw a highly coordinated land-grabbing effort. The Bliss and Wisdom Foundation, which is known for its Tibetan Buddhist beliefs, circumvented the restrictions of the Land Conservation Act on non-residents through a series of split deals between a network of corporations and individuals and the organization has coordinated the purchase of land on behalf of its followers, buying up more land in the foundation’s name. The PEI Land Conservation Coalition has estimated that the Buddhist organization and its affiliates had purchased more than 17,000 acres (68.8 square kilometers) of land, controlling about 4 percent of the land in Kings County.
Many of the properties associated with the organization have remained vacant for much of the time, and the impact of the land purchases came during an immediate housing crisis, which drove up real estate prices for the farming communities and made it difficult for families to find housing.
The organization now has five affiliated campuses in PEI, which have been home to hundreds of monastic students from China and Taiwan. These include two Buddhist campuses customized for Taiwanese students and three specifically designed for Chinese ones, who are separate from the Taiwanese. Every year, more monks and nuns come—and with their arrival, more land deals relating to the Buddhist organization are completed. International students at the schools receive wire transfers from Taiwan and/or China and are then ‘donating’ large sums to the monastery.
Facing such abnormal, aggressive land purchasing activities, residents of the Island want to know more about this religious group and the people behind it. Many PEI residents who have sold lands to the Chinese Buddhists are reluctant to talk about the deals. Land sellers are often required to sign non-disclosure agreements, and in many cases, the ultimate source of the funds is unclear. This reminds people of the secret deals Beijing has signed with foreign governments, which has caused the other party in the deal to lose miserably over time.
In 2018, the local land regulator, the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC) completed an investigation but refused requests from the media, citizens’ groups, and opposition politicians to make its report public. The matter was brought to the attention of the Island’s Attorney General and Minister of Agriculture and Land, Bloyce Thompson, in November 2019, who has remained silent. The local sellers’ non-disclosure attitude and the PEI local government’s lack of transparency are more problematic than the land buying itself. This Buddhist organization certainly has loyal friends within the PEI government. For people who are familiar with CCP operations, we see the regime’s fingerprints all over the deals.
The woman behind the organization
Although Bliss and Wisdom is a Tibetan Buddhist monastic organization from Taiwan, its spiritual leader is originally from Heilongjiang Province in China. How a laywoman, who was married twice, became the master of a Taiwanese monastic organization shows us the problem behind the organization.
Jin Mengrong or Mary Jin, aka Master Zhen Ru, met the founder of the Bliss and Wisdom, Senior Monk Jih-Chang, in 2000. Jih-Chang was smitten by Ms. Jin’s stories of spirit possession after meeting her. According to the First Abbot of Bliss and Wisdom, the Venerable Fan Yin, the Senior Monk started behaving erratically after meeting Jin, and the woman quickly became his confidant. Although the Dalai Lama, who is Senior Monk Jih-Chang’s superior, has never recognized Jin, she became the leader of the organization after Monk Jih-Chang’s suspicious death in mainland China in 2004.
In 2005, Jin tried to enter Taiwan using a fake passport and was caught by border control. Not being able to go to Taiwan, she expanded her territory in mainland China, Singapore, and other countries, including Canada in particular.
In 2006, Jin established the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Initiative Society (GEBIS) in British Columbia. In 2008, GEBIS was incorporated in Prince Edward Island. And In 2013, GEBIS was registered in Ontario. Mary Jin made her first trip to Taiwan in March 2015. The Taiwanese government later suspended her visa for 5 years, citing her illegal religious activities while on a tourist visa. But the ban was later lifted when a local legislator came forward to vouch for her.
In May 2017, the 1st and 2nd Abbot of Bliss and Wisdom, the Venerable Van Yin (梵因法師) and Venerable Jing Ming (淨明法師）exposed Jin’s unscrupulous behavior, which was widely reported by Taiwanese media. In July, the organization issued a statement revoking Fan Yin’s monastic status and confirming Mary Jin was the chosen successor by the deceased Elder Monk, and denied allegations that Jin had violated Buddhist precepts by “living with the monks”.
According to an interview Fan Yin gave on Oct 22, 2017, to the Tibet Post International, Mary Jin moved in with the abbots of two monasteries in succession after divorcing her husband, causing them to break their vows of celibacy. After taking over Bliss and Wisdom, she has been living with the Marco monks for years, using tantric practices as an excuse to seduce monks into having sex with her. Such allegations have emerged every now and then. The interview mentioned an audio recording of a novice monk admitting that Mary Jin seduced him into breaking his vows. The audio recording has not been publicly released.
On July 12, 2017, the Venerable Van Yin and other monks traveled to Ladakh, India to visit the Dalai Lama at the Deskit Monastery to ask about Jin’s behavior. The Dalai Lama instructed that if she violated the precepts and was not practicing the Dharma, disciples could leave the teacher, expose the teacher’s wrongdoings, and make the crime known to the world. The video of this meeting is publicly available.
Since Mary Jin took over, Bliss and Wisdom has actively raised funds. She enjoys an extravagant lifestyle, driving a Mercedes SUV, buying expensive handbags, and sharing her new-found wealth with her family. Donors were asked to agree not to receive receipts, making it convenient for the organization to avoid an audit trail and launder the money overseas. Business ventures like selling precious gems and seafood were kept secret from followers. Profits from such ventures were not publicized.
What is most disturbing is Jin’s close ties to the mainland. Her sister, Jin Mengqiu or Mandy Jin, who was a media person with the official state television network in Zhejiang, is now active in Canada and the United States. Bliss and Wisdom raised huge amounts of funds for its mega-temple in Taiwan, but these funds were instead diverted to China to help the CCP-endorsed Tibetan spiritual leader build a monastery. Fan Yin has gone on Taiwanese television to display receipts showing evidence of Bliss and Wisdom’s deceitful fundraising methods but the organization insists that funds were never diverted. He said:
“Bliss & Wisdom’s main problem is that the Chinese Communist Party has infiltrated Bliss and Wisdom, using the Bliss and Wisdom leadership to distort Buddhism in favor of Chinese interests. They have diverted overseas Chinese disciples of His Holiness the Dalai Lama into the arms of the Chinese-sanctioned Panchen Lama lineage.”
Buddhism is a major religion in Taiwan, with about one-third of Taiwan’s residents professing Buddhism. Political tensions between China and Taiwan remain high, and Mary Jin’s position in a Taiwanese Buddhist organization is seen by some as evidence of China’s attempt to use religion to influence Taiwan.
Since Jin took over, the organization has embarked on an ambitious global expansion that has seen its student population grow from 20,000 to 100,000, with more than 800 monks and 600 nuns. The Great Enlightenment Buddhist Initiative Society, an overseas extension of Bliss and Wisdom, was purportedly established to bring half of its 800 Dharma teachers to PEI. But Mary Jin couldn’t have done it alone. She has help.
Who are the people helping Mary Jin build her empire in Canada? The answer to that question is more troubling than a Chinese-controlled Taiwanese organization taking over Canada’s smallest province. In Part II of this topic, we’ll get to the bottom of the people who are helping Mary Jin in Canada.
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