Interview: Arbitrary Punishment in Taiwan — My Case on Taiwan Explorers

New Interview: My Story Featured on Taiwan Explorers

It was a real pleasure to meet Benoit F. Massé — a thoughtful, hardworking French filmmaker who has built a life and business in Taiwan. He took the time to interview me for his YouTube channel @TaiwanExplorers, and I’m honored to be featured.

What stood out to me most was Benoit's ability to see beyond the surface. While many people dismiss legal anomalies as “probably nothing,” he had the common sense and courage to recognize that asking questions isn’t dangerous — it’s necessary. Especially in Taiwan, where free speech can be chilled by arbitrary or disproportionate legal responses, his work matters.

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Why does this matter?

This interview gives further exposure to what I’ve been calling the clearest example of arbitrary punishment I’ve ever seen: a Taiwanese court document that openly says I caused no harm and had no malicious intent — and then punishes me anyway. I encourage every expat, legal scholar, or Taiwanese citizen to consider what this means for judicial fairness.

I've now been featured twice in the Taipei Times, and more media are taking interest. I'm grateful to all who are helping shine a light.

Curiously…
Since June, my iCloud email (ross@rosscline.com) has stopped sending — I can still receive, but I cannot send from any device, browser, or network. Apple engineers are investigating. It’s likely a technical glitch, but the timing is... interesting, especially as the only persistent email recipients over the last six months have had .tw addresses — Taiwan’s Judicial Yuan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Presidential Office.

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Thank you, Benoit, for your time, your intelligence, and your belief that truth deserves a platform — not silence.

📄 Full Interview Transcript

Benoit F. Massé:
Hello everyone, and welcome. Today we're going to talk about something quite serious — legal issues in Taiwan. I think it's very important for everyone to understand, before coming to Taiwan, what they can expect, what the culture is like, and also the risks involved with the justice system.
It's a tough subject, but I think today we’re going to learn a lot, and hopefully it’ll be very useful for everyone.
So, Ross, I’ll let you introduce yourself briefly.

Ross Cline:
All right. Hi, my name is Ross Cline. I’m from Canada — New Brunswick, on the East Coast, just beside Maine, USA.
I moved to Taiwan in 2009 and opened a school near City Hall in Taichung.

Benoit F. Massé:
Okay, so that was in 2009, right?

Ross Cline:
Yes.

Benoit F. Massé:
So you were an English teacher. You also have a website for teaching English, is that correct?

Ross Cline:
Yes — rosscline.com, C-L-I-N-E.
And also iLearn.tw, which was the name of the company in Taiwan. It was based right beside City Hall in 2009. It was fully legal and legitimate. I was on top of the world at 28 years old, running my own little school. I felt pretty special.
After living there for 15 years, if anyone had told me that my whole life would be over...

Benoit F. Massé:
Yeah, it’s very crazy. So, you started your own school — but before that, how did you even think about Taiwan? You were in Canada — did you have any friends in Taiwan? How did you come to be here?

Ross Cline:
Well, I first came at 18 for the summer to teach English. This was back when the High-Speed Rail (HSR) was just being built. One of the bosses at the school was also the owner of a cement company — so you can imagine they had some serious contracts at the time.
It was the glory days. So I left feeling pretty big because it was after my first year of university. You know, people asked, “What did you do during the summer?” And I’d say, “I was an English teacher.” Wow! My ego was pretty inflated.
Then I went back to Canada, but it wasn’t the same. I lived in Toronto for five years, then in Germany for a year and a half. Eventually, I decided to open a school in late 2009 in Taichung, Taiwan — and that’s what I did.

Benoit F. Massé:
That’s great — a little run at life! I feel the same way; Taiwan has given me a lot of opportunities that I wouldn’t have had back in Europe.
So okay, you started your school, it’s going well — and then you signed a rental contract. Is that where things began to go wrong?

Ross Cline:
Yes. Basically, after 13 good years at the City Hall location, a cram school opened next door — and they started using a jackhammer only during my class times.
It was a dirty, rotten trick. In hindsight, I wish I had known then what I know now. I never should’ve told my landlord, “Hey, I can’t teach because no one can hear me over the jackhammer.”
By telling them, I was effectively giving them notice that this was sabotage and asking for help. But the better move — in hindsight — would’ve been to go directly to court, get a legal notice for the people disrupting my business, and say I was going to sue them. Leave the landlord completely out of it.

Benoit F. Massé:
Right.

Ross Cline:
But I didn’t know that at the time.
And the landlord, instead of helping, basically said, “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want you around. You’re too much trouble.”
So I had to move — and I wanted to move anyway because there was literally a jackhammer that came right through my bedroom wall.

Benoit F. Massé:
Wow, okay.

Ross Cline:
Yeah. So I found a new place — it was the school of my dreams — but it turned out to be a clear scam from the beginning.
It was designed so that I would want to move out on my own, and they could keep my deposit — 200,000 Taiwan dollars.

Benoit F. Massé:
Is that common? Have you heard of other similar situations? I’ve heard of things like that in China, but not so much in Taiwan. Do you think it still happens a lot here?

Ross Cline:
You mean landlord scams? Or the sabotage part?

Benoit F. Massé:
The sabotage — deliberately disrupting your business.

Ross Cline:
Yeah, that’s what happened to me.
And I was literally across the street from the police station and the Environmental Protection Agency — the one responsible for noise complaints.
I remember going to their office with young children in tears, crying because the noise was so loud.
I couldn’t run my business there. My clientele started dwindling, and it was really awful.
Even the people at the big police station on Wenxin Road and Taiwan Boulevard — it’s still there — even they couldn’t or wouldn’t help.
It was just a dirty, rotten trick. But that’s what happened.

Benoit F. Massé:
Yeah, yeah. That’s not the main story for today, but you said you should have sued them instead of going to the police, right?

Ross Cline:
No. What I should’ve done — and I offer this as advice to anyone — is understand that a landlord in Taiwan is not like a landlord in a normal place.
They are literally treated like gods. So if you say anything that requires them to act — how dare you? They’re renting that space to you at what they see as a bargain. It’s not about covering their mortgage. They’re just hoping to sit on the property and make a million dollars in four months. That’s the kind of high rollers they are.

So if you go to them saying, “I’m paying rent, but I can’t run my business here, and you need to help,” that’s not okay. You need to file a lawsuit against whoever is bothering you and leave your landlord completely out of it. Because once you involve them in any capacity, they’ll want you gone as soon as possible. Why would they keep a tenant who causes them any trouble?

Benoit F. Massé:
Yeah, that’s true. I’ve heard that a lot — the landlords in Taiwan, or at least the culture, is that you buy a property, rent it out, and then you never have to work again or deal with anything. And if you call them for a plumbing or AC issue, they hate it. They call it mafan — they don’t want the trouble, right?

Ross Cline:
Exactly. If you rent a business front and make it beautiful, it’s been known — I remember a bar called Orgasmo in Taichung. Over the 15 years I was there, they moved to like eight different locations. The owner’s a good guy — he knows me from way back — and I remember him saying, “We’re moving again. The landlord came in, saw how great the place looked, and doubled the rent.”

Benoit F. Massé:
Oh yeah, the rent increase — I think that’s extremely common. If not automatic, it’s almost expected. Don’t make your place too nice, or your rent’s going up — and it’s your fault.

Ross Cline:
Exactly.

Benoit F. Massé:
Okay, so let’s get into the substance for today. What actually led you to leave Taiwan?

Ross Cline:
Well, I moved in a hurry. I found a place that — for lack of a better phrase — was the school of my dreams.
It had a big sliding glass front on Fifth Street. Before me, it had been used by a foreign-owned electric scooter company. I think it was from Italy or somewhere in Europe. In hindsight, I believe they also got screwed over. But let’s stick to my story.

I now believe they were deliberately renting to foreigners because they knew foreigners couldn’t do much about being scammed. The idea was: get him in, take his deposit, and wait for him to want to leave on his own — so they could keep it. That’s why I call it a landlord scam. You can read all about it at rosscline.com/scam and ilearn.tw/scam. There are videos, TVBS footage, two Taipei Times articles, and soon, CHCO-TV international news will be covering it.

Benoit F. Massé:
Do you think that from day one it was a scam — that they just wanted your deposit?

Ross Cline:
Yes. It was as clear as the nose on your face — but I wasn’t in a position to see it. Hindsight’s 20/20.
It was the beginning of COVID. I had to move out of my previous place quickly. I found this place and thought, “No, give her the benefit of the doubt. It’s not a scam.”
But then, suddenly — boom — she’s suing me… for what? For sharing the rental contract that she had clearly broken, leaving me with no door that locked.

Benoit F. Massé:
Okay, so let’s try to walk through the events in order.
You found this new building you really wanted, it fit your needs, and you signed the rental contract?

Ross Cline:
Yes.

Benoit F. Massé:
Then I assume you moved your school in and started teaching?

Ross Cline:
Exactly. I moved in, borrowed $100,000 to do the upgrade and renovation.
But then came the problems. Aside from them showing up unannounced — which is illegal — I started to realize… this wasn’t really my place, was it?

I had a metal garage door — you know, the kind with the big metal gate — and that door broke after being “fixed” and literally fell down. It was caught on CCTV. It could have killed someone. TVBS’s words, not mine.
My friend was luckily standing back when it collapsed. That door was over a ton in weight because it was very wide.

After that, I had no working garage door — only a sliding glass door that anyone could pull open. I had no window blinds. Sunlight would beam in and ruin my gear — speakers, equipment. I was supposed to live there for five years.
You need that garage gate. It was part of the deal.
And the landlord was responsible for fixing it — point number five in the contract. That’s why I shared the contract.

Benoit F. Massé:
Okay, I see. So you had a dispute with the landlord, and you decided to publish the contract online to seek advice?

Ross Cline:
Yes. The contract was in Chinese. I didn’t even realize it contained personal information — which apparently made it illegal to share — until two days later.
Guess who saw it? She did.
It was a scam — and she probably expected I might share it. I mean, of course a foreigner would share a rental contract when they’ve been screwed over. What would you do?

She used that and — I would say — likely paid off some judges. There’s obvious collaboration and corruption. Some judges may lose their seats when this comes to light.

Benoit F. Massé:
Right. For people who haven’t read the full story — I have, but some in the audience haven’t — let me clarify.
You shared the contract online, and she sued you for exposing private information. But what private info was even in the contract, other than maybe her address?

Ross Cline:
Exactly — just her address.
But in Taiwan, that’s a criminal offense. You wouldn’t know that if you’ve never encountered this kind of case. There was no non-disclosure clause, and in any normal situation, there should’ve been no issue sharing it.

But in Taiwan? If you’re a foreigner, they’ll ignore the fear and duress, ignore five witnesses, ignore TV footage — the kind that aired on national news, two or maybe even three channels — and they’ll throw the book at you.
They gave me six months in jail because I wasn’t “remorseful” enough — for doing nothing wrong.

Ross Cline (continued):
And this is where it gets even more disturbing.
I don’t have a biological child, but I helped raise a seven-year-old boy. He’s still living in Taiwan with his father. We raised him together. He’s a big part of my life.
This wasn’t just my life being ruined — it was his too. It’s a human rights violation, plain and simple. It’s cruel.

Benoit F. Massé:
That’s very sad.

Ross Cline:
It’s awful. I can’t describe the shock.
But then — and this is what’s really shocking — I received a court document in March of this year while I was in Canada, trying to get this on TV and emailing Taiwanese officials.
And guess what it said?
It said: “You caused no harm and had no malicious intent.”
In other words: You did nothing wrong.

But it also said: You still have to go to jail for six months — not two — because you weren’t remorseful enough about doing nothing wrong.
That’s in one four-page document. It’s on my website.

Ross Cline (continued):
This is what’s called arbitrary punishment.

Benoit F. Massé:
Let’s just pause a bit. For people unfamiliar with Taiwan — some might be considering moving here — we have to say that this isn’t going to happen to everyone, right? It’s a rare case.

Ross Cline:
Sure. It’s rare, but it’s also life-ruining.
I’ve been building my business in Taiwan for 15 years. If I had known that something like this could happen — that I could be thrown out and lose everything — I’d never have stayed that long or invested that much.

Benoit F. Massé:
Right. It’s good for people to know in advance.
Let’s go back again. So you received a letter saying you were being sued — was that from the landlord directly?

Ross Cline:
Yeah. But honestly, I’m no longer angry at the landlord.
During the first two years of this hellish battle, I was. But now?
You can’t blame her for using the judiciary as a weapon against a foreigner — you have to blame the judiciary. That’s where the problem lies.

Benoit F. Massé:
Right. So the real issue is the judicial system.

Ross Cline:
Yes — and here’s the kicker:
They sentenced me to six months in jail. And in the document I received in March, they were basically unapologetic. They said outright they were doing it arbitrarily.
This violates ICCPR Articles 9 and 26 — which Taiwan ceremoniously signed — but they don’t care.
It’s like they said: “We’re a rogue province off China, and screw you, foreigner. We’re going to ruin your life because nobody’s going to stop us.”

And honestly, if I had known I was that vulnerable in Taiwan, I would’ve left years ago. I wouldn’t wish this nightmare on my worst enemy.

Benoit F. Massé:
Yes, I understand. So, you went to trial and received your sentence — but you still had the opportunity to fly back to Canada and avoid jail time?

Ross Cline:
Yes. Two days after my plane took off, they were looking for me and had already flagged me in the system. I was lucky. I just barely made it out in time.

Benoit F. Massé:
Oh wow. I’ve heard of some cases where people were able to leave the country, but usually that’s not the case. Normally, right after trial, you’re not allowed to leave Taiwan.

Ross Cline:
Right, because it’s a criminal offense. But I think the gears didn’t move fast enough in my case — maybe because the offense was so absurd. It was literally about something that happened over two days, four years ago. So maybe they didn’t close the gate on me quickly enough. They weren’t exactly saying, “We have to stop this man from leaving — he’s a danger to society.”

Benoit F. Massé:
Yeah.

Ross Cline:
And they gave me the option: either work for free teaching English for one full year, or go to jail for six months.
But how am I supposed to rebuild my life working five or six days a week — full days — for free? That’s not an alternative. That’s forced labor.

Benoit F. Massé:
Yeah. That’s pretty bad. So all of this... just because you shared a rental contract?

Ross Cline:
Exactly. Arbitrary punishment.

Benoit F. Massé:
So the next step for you is—

Wait, let me sidetrack a bit: is this the first interview you’ve done like this — telling your full story?

Ross Cline:
Yes. This is the first interview I’ve ever done that might actually see the light of day. I hope it does. I’m just sorry the video quality’s not fantastic. But yeah — it’s also the first time I’ve spoken about it publicly since receiving that letter in March.

And to me, that letter… the Taiwan government can’t just ignore it. Those are their own words. And I have so much evidence. You’ve ruined my life for four years. You owe me serious compensation — if you’re going to rectify it.

Benoit F. Massé:
Yeah. I mean, people like us — we’ve been in Taiwan for such a long time. We call it home. We love Taiwan. And we only want to improve it — not attack it.

Ross Cline:
Exactly. I hope some people watching this understand that.
The first thing that needs to change is how easily foreigners can be targeted — and how hard it is for a foreigner to win any legal dispute in Taiwan. It’s almost impossible to win against a Taiwanese person.

Benoit F. Massé:
Can you say that again?

Ross Cline:
Yeah. And I want to say something to you directly. What you’re doing right now — I’m really humbled by it.
Back when I was running my business in Taichung, I felt pretty invincible. On top of the world.
When I’d hear stories about other foreigners being thrown under the proverbial bus, I’d be quick to say, “Well, they probably deserved it. They should just leave.”
But now — you’re taking the time, as an established foreigner who’s been in Taiwan for over ten years, to hear me out.
And I’m growing from this experience. I’m realizing how wrong I was back then. I feel like a total jerk for not listening to those stories.
You’re doing something I never did. You’re giving someone the time of day, looking into things, being curious. Thank you.

Benoit F. Massé:
Well, yeah. I appreciate that.
My business is growing too. I want to stay in Taiwan — another ten years, twenty maybe. But it’s stressful, knowing this kind of thing can happen.

Ross Cline:
Yeah. Fingers crossed.

Benoit F. Massé:
Let me tell you another story. Just yesterday, I met a friend of mine on the bus.
He told me all of his bank accounts had been frozen because someone reported him for fraud.
Apparently, he sold a surfboard for 1,000 NT — about 30 US dollars. The buyer wasn’t happy with the condition, but instead of talking to him, they just reported him.
Now all his accounts are frozen. Not just one — all of them. And he still doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to use bank accounts in Taiwan again. He’s been here 15 or 20 years.

Ross Cline:
I’m glad you mentioned that, because I didn’t earlier — but it happened to me too.
During the first year of this legal circus — I won’t even call it a process — I had a state-appointed legal aid lawyer. She was probably just a clerk.
She told me the landlord could take money directly from my personal or company bank accounts indefinitely — until she collected the half a million NT dollars she was suing me for… for “emotional damages,” because I shared the rental contract.

That’s what I was up against. So yes — the bank account issue happened to me too.

And I have another friend — one of my best friends — this isn’t hearsay. He had parking tickets from when he lived in Hsinchu for seven years. Then he moved to Taichung.
He didn’t even know about the tickets. But six years later — poof — over 10,000 NT was missing from his account. That’s what it was for.
So yeah — in Taiwan, your money is not safe in a bank account if the system decides it wants it.

Benoit F. Massé:
Yeah. That’s not okay.
Another thing I want to mention — because it happened to me — if someone sues you over money in Taiwan, you can’t leave the country until the matter is resolved.
So if I say you stole 1,000 NT from me and file a report, you can be stopped at the airport. You’ll be blocked from leaving.
And the worst part is — sometimes, you don’t even know you’re being sued.

Ross Cline:
Yeah. It’s out of control.
I was sued for money too — but I managed to get out. Maybe I was just lucky. I can’t say for sure.

But to add to the whole idea of arbitrary punishment — there was a case during COVID, or right after the peak of it. Someone was hoarding face masks. It made the newspaper.
Guess what the sentence was? Five years in jail.

Benoit F. Massé:
Five years?

Ross Cline:
Yeah. For hoarding face masks. Five years. It was insane.
And who knows what actually happened? It was just a headline in the Taipei Times. But the point is — it’s crazy.

You can get five years in jail for something like that. Or for smoking a little dope.
I don’t even smoke, and I’m not saying I support legalization — but five years?

Benoit F. Massé:
Yeah. People definitely need to be aware — if they come to Taiwan, don’t mess with anything illegal. Even minor stuff. It’s not worth it.

Ross Cline:
Oh Lord, yeah. You’ll do serious time for something that, elsewhere, wouldn’t even be considered a crime. It’s unbelievable.

Benoit F. Massé:
Yeah, yeah. Pretty crazy.

So… I hope we had enough time to cover everything. Is there anything you want to add?

Ross Cline:
I just want to say I hope everything goes through. Maybe I’ll write a book, or do more interviews like this — hopefully with bigger media.

Benoit F. Massé:
Thank you.

Ross Cline:
Soon, I hope — with your help — we can bring this to light. That’s been really hard. Even the human rights groups in Taiwan won’t touch it, because they’re bound by what their government allows them to engage in.
Everyone said it — “Her husband is very rich… mafia-connected.”
Let’s call a spade a spade. That’s what I was up against.
So yeah, I got the wrong landlord. And if you’d like to know her name, address, phone number — I’ll probably be publishing it soon at rosscline.com/scam.
And there’s nothing she can do about it — I’m in Canada. I’ve got nothing to lose.
(laughs) I’m joking. But am I?

Benoit F. Massé:
(laughs) Yeah.

Ross Cline:
Keep in touch. Stay updated at ilearn.tw/scam.
Also, I’m going to be on the news tomorrow — I don’t know when it’ll air.
The two Taipei Times articles and the official court document — the one that clearly shows arbitrary punishment — are all there.
It’s in Chinese, but put it through AI. You’ll see exactly what it says.
“No ill intent. No malice. No harm done.”
But still — jail time.

Benoit F. Massé:
Let’s hope things can improve — both for you and for Taiwan.

Ross Cline:
If they do, it’s because of people like you. I appreciate you taking the time. Thank you.

Benoit F. Massé:
Thank you.

Ross Cline:
All right. I’ll see you soon, then. (offers handshake)
Bye.