Episode 173:
A HOLY Monk’s Unholy Obsession
On February 24, 2023, a call came in to a police station in Sichuan Province, China. The caller said he was being extorted for a large sum of money. He was a Buddhist monk. When officers reached the teahouse he named, they found a couple outside counting more than $110,000 in cash.
The couple were in no hurry. Inside, they had just signed a written agreement with the monk stating that the money was a fair settlement, not paid under pressure. To understand why a monk would hand over that much money, sign an agreement and then call the police, the story has to go back three years, to a livestream.
The Chairman
In 2020, Xiaocai and her husband, Qian, ran a rosewood furniture store in a small coastal city in southeastern China. Rosewood sets cost tens of thousands of dollars and sold rarely, but one sale could carry them for months. When COVID kept customers away, Xiaocai turned to live commerce, which was booming in China, and began streaming her furniture. Viewers commented more on her looks than on the furniture, and she was soon streaming seven or eight hours a day. Late in 2020 a new viewer arrived and immediately began showering her with donations. He became her top supporter that day and soon ordered $150,000 worth of furniture. The chat called him "the Chairman." She gave him her WeChat ID, and their private messages grew more personal; the racier they got, the more he sent, sometimes more than the furniture cost. He kept odd hours, asleep by 8 or 9 p.m. and messaging at 3 or 4 a.m., and some days he could not be reached at all. After about two months he offered her a large sum to spend a night with him. Xiaocai was married, but she accepted. On February 24, 2021, without telling her husband, she flew to a hotel in Sichuan.
The Abbot
A pleasant-looking middle-aged man in a white suit and sunglasses approached her. His head was shaved smooth. To break the ice she joked that he looked like a monk, and he was visibly flustered. The early nights, the pre-dawn messages and the days he disappeared, which turned out to be major Buddhist events, suddenly made sense. Monks may not marry or be intimate with women. They went to the room together anyway. Afterward she pressed him until he admitted it. He was Shi Zhaojie, a monk since 1999 who had studied religion at a leading university in Beijing, abbot since 2005 of the 1,700-year-old Shixiang Temple and of two others, president of the local Buddhist association and vice president of the Sichuan Buddhist Association. He said he had started watching livestreams by chance and enjoyed how hosts thanked donors and told them they loved them. Xiaocai looked like the woman of his dreams, and his heart fluttered whenever she called out his username. She was uneasy, but he was her biggest supporter, and she decided to say nothing.
The Hidden Camera
In April 2021, Qian looked at his wife's phone and found her messages with Shi Zhaojie. She confessed everything. Qian was furious, but he also wondered how a monk could afford $150,000 in furniture and lavish donations. Large temples in China receive substantial offerings, and the abbot manages them. A man with that much money and that much to hide, Qian reasoned, could be made to pay. He had Xiaocai invite the monk to their town, and on April 23, 2021, Shi Zhaojie flew in, wearing a designer shirt and heavy cologne, and hurried her upstairs. Qian had hidden a camera in the room, and it recorded everything. On July 10 the couple flew to Sichuan. Xiaocai called to say she was nearby, and the monk rushed to her hotel, where Qian was waiting. Shi Zhaojie denied everything until Qian showed him the footage, then agreed to pay to keep it quiet, handing over about $150,000. He paid so readily that Qian could not stop wondering how much more he had. In February 2023, Qian went alone to the temple. When the monk refused to see him, Qian posted the monk's photo on Douyin, China's TikTok, promising major news about him soon. The monk agreed to negotiate. Qian demanded more than $450,000. On February 24, at the teahouse, the couple signed the agreement and deleted the photos and videos, and the monk wired about $75,000 and handed over about $110,000 in cash. Then he called the police. He had decided he would rather lose everything than be controlled by them forever.
Final Thoughts
The couple were arrested at the teahouse and charged with extortion. In June 2024 the court ruled that the first $150,000, taken in 2021, was a settled matter and not a crime. The crime was going back in 2023 to threaten him again. Qian was sentenced to five and a half years in prison, and Xiaocai to three years, suspended for four. Legally, Shi Zhaojie was the victim, but once the story became public he stepped down as abbot and the Buddhist association revoked his ordination certificate, ending a career of more than twenty years. Many suspected the money came from temple donations. Religious authorities said they found no evidence of that, and where it came from remains unknown. Each of the three thought, for a while, that they had gotten what they wanted.
The court ruled that the first $150,000 the couple took from the monk was a settled matter and only the second demand was extortion. The monk, legally the victim, lost his position and his ordination, and the source of his money was never explained. Of the three, who do you think bears the most blame?
WE DOCUMENT.
YOU DECIDE.
Our interpretation is only one possible perspective.
