Multiple rallies were held across Taipei yesterday as the nation commemorated the first anniversary of the Sunflower movement, marking the day when student-led protesters first began to lay siege to the Legislative Yuan in the capital over the government’s handling of a proposed cross-strait service trade agreement.
The participants revisited demands made during last year’s landmark protests, in which activist groups occupied the Legislative Yuan’s main chamber for almost 23 days, while tens of thousands of demonstrators were encamped outside the legislative compound.
While centered on continued concern about relations with China, the protesters also expressed diverse demands for political reform, spearheaded by youth activist groups that blossomed in the aftermath of the Sunflower movement.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
At the largest rally, more than 1,000 demonstrators returned to Jinan Road next to the legislative compound last night to show their support for the activist groups.
The event featured speeches by prominent social activists, as well as more than a dozen stands promoting the ideas of various social movements, ranging from groups calling for reform of the Constitution to petition drives aimed at amending the Referendum Act (公民投票法).
As the activists commemorated the Sunflower movement, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) hosted a live public hearing online, in a bid to promote the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposed version of a cross-strait oversight bill.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The passage of a cross-strait oversight bill was the primary demand of the Sunflower movement, after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) sparked a public outcry when he attempted to ram through a preliminary reading of the service trade pact in about 30 seconds.
Human rights lawyer Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強), one of the most vocal critics of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration, said that the government’s version of the cross-strait oversight bill is “designed to prevent any meaningful oversight.”
He urged the public to visit a Web site launched by activist groups, where netizens would be able to express their views on eight proposed versions of the oversight bill through a series of detailed questionnaires.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
At one point during the demonstration, protesters pushed a large balloon over the walls of the legislative compound with the words “constitutional reform” etched across it.
Members of the Civic Alliance to Promote Constitutional Reform urged comprehensive reforms to the Constitution, saying that the Sunflower movement illustrated serious flaws in the nation’s political institutions.
The rally drew a diverse crowd, with protesters sitting on the ground to participate in the event.
One protester, a man in his 20s surnamed Yang (楊) who works in the restaurant industry, said that the movement was important because it disrupted the pace at which the government was carrying out negotiations with China.
He said the movement created an impact among the younger generation, as more people are now willing to show their support for social movements and underprivileged groups.
Another supporter, surnamed Hsiao (蕭), showed up at the rally with his three-year-old daughter.
He said the movement encouraged him to participate in politics by getting involved in a ballot-watching campaign during the nine-in-one elections last year.
At a separate rally earlier in the day, student activist Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), who played a leading role in the Sunflower movement along with fellow activist Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆), said that the Ma administration has continued to promote closer ties with China.
“We all know that the Ma administration does not just want to implement the cross-strait service trade agreement or continue economic negotiations; what follows is a push for a meeting between Ma and [Chinese President] Xi Jinping (習近平), as well as political negotiations,” Chen said.
Looking back on last year’s protests, Chen said that the decisionmaking process throughout the movement lacked democratic participation among its members, adding that the “deification” and increased public attention on the leaders of the movement should be re-examined.
Chen has disappeared from the public eye since December last year, after a series of sexual harassment scandals surfaced, marking an abrupt end to his 17-day legislative campaign in the Miaoli by-election.
The embattled activist participated in a smaller rally earlier in the day led by former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄), in which about 200 members of the People Rule Foundation marched around the Legislative Yuan.
Wearing their signature bamboo hats, the protesters made seven laps of the Legislative Yuan compound in silence, in reference to the biblical Battle of Jericho, in which the walls of Jericho were said to have crumbled after the Israelite army marched seven times around the city.
Academia Sinica researcher Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said campaigns led by youth activist group Taiwan March, which grew out of the Sunflower movement, aimed to tackle problems inherent in the nation’s political institutions — such as the failure of legislators to respect public opinion.
He urged the public to continue to support activists’ drive to reform the Referendum Act to ensure that the public have a say in political decisions.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS