Ching Hai - International Profile

International Profile

On 25 October 1993 the Mayor of Honolulu, Frank Fasi, proclaimed the day as "Supreme Master Ching Hai Day" and awarded her Honorary Citizenship of Honolulu and an International Peace Commendation.

On 22 February 1994 she was awarded commendations from representatives of six US State Governors for contributions to various disaster relief funds. She has claimed that seven United States governors proclaimed 22 February 1994 as "Supreme Master Ching Hai Day" in recognition of her charitable work including then governor of Iowa, Terry Branstad, for her $65,000 donation to relief efforts for victims of the 1993 Mississippi River flooding. In the same year, $200,000 which she promised to a relief organisation after the Southern Californian fires reportedly never arrived. Metroactive reported that it was alleged in Taiwan that Ching Hai set up two front organisations to make awards to her, and manipulated a United States official into posing as the president of one in a public ceremony.

Ching Hai asks her followers to specifically acknowledge these two days each year, both referred to as Ching Hai Day.

In 1994, the local government in Vinh Long Province, Vietnam issued a declaration classifying Ching Hai's operations as "religious propaganda" intended to "illegally oppose the government." Actions were launched to curtail further activities by her organisation.

In 1996, in an attempt to build political support abroad, Ching Hai asked her followers to contribute money to the Clinton Presidential Legal Expense Trust. US$880,000 was raised. However, the donations were returned when the Trust found irregularities involving identical signatures and consecutively numbered money orders. They also found donors listed who did not have the financial means to give that amount of money. The year-long scandal had a negative effect on her organisation, further damaged perception of the Clinton administration, and rather than the intended "boomerang of international support" for her efforts, resulted in an extensive investigation and a congressional subpoena. The Taiwan government also investigated her organization for "alleged fund-raising improprieties," which included a transfer of $2 million outside of the country.

Ching Hai was criticised in the Western press as "The Immaterial Girl: Part Buddha, Part Madonna," and as "The Buddhist Martha Stewart ... merchandizing mystic from Taiwan."

Ching Hai was awarded the Gusi Peace Prize in 2006 in Manila, Philippines for her work in Philanthropy and Humanitarianism.