TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the streets around Taiwan's Parliament on Sunday to voice their opposition to a trade pact with China, part of a nearly 2-week-old protest that is challenging the president's policy of moving the democratic island economically closer to China.
Lin Fei-fan, a protest organizer, estimated that 500,000 people had turned out in the biggest demonstration since the movement started. An Associated Press estimate put the number at more than 200,000, and a police estimate at more than 100,000.
Crowds dressed in black sat on one blocked boulevard, many carrying plastic or real sunflowers, the symbol of the protest movement, and wearing yellow ribbons that read "Fight for democracy, retract the service trade pact."
Several hundred mainly student protesters have been occupying Taiwan's legislature since March 18, supported by thousands outside the building.
They are protesting President Ma Ying-jeou's intention to enact a trade deal that would allow Taiwanese and Chinese service sector companies in businesses ranging from banking to beauty parlors to open up branches or shops in the other's territory.
The action was sparked by the decision by a lawmaker from Ma's ruling Nationalist Party to renege on a promised clause-by-clause review of the trade deal, which was signed by both sides last year but is awaiting ratification by Taiwan's Parliament.
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Protesters display a banner denouncing the controversial China Taiwan trade pact during a massive pr …
On Saturday, Ma gave into students' demands to increase scrutiny of future pacts signed with China, but refused to withdraw the pact in question, saying it would deeply harm Taiwan's interests.
"I'm not against free trade, but the government should come up with policies to protect local industries before they open the door," said a protester, Philip Lihan, 30, a graphic designer in Taipei originally from Chiayi in southern Taiwan.
"I've been sitting-in near the legislature every day after work until midnight," said Lihan, who added that he had been working with other artists to create murals in support of the protest.
Flower shop worker Li Li-ming took a four-hour bus ride from her home in Tainan city in southern Taiwan to the capital Sunday morning with her children, aged 7 and 9, to take part in the protest.
"This is the first time that I have participated in such a big demonstration and I am here because this is a demonstration led by neither party, but students," said Li, 38. "I just came back from Hong Kong. Everything is getting so expensive there. I'm afraid Taiwan will become like Hong Kong."
Opponents of the pact say it would cost Taiwan tens of thousands of jobs because small businesses on the island will be unable to compete with cash-rich, mostly state-run Chinese companies intent on investing in Taiwan. They also say it would give a big boost to China's efforts to bring the island, which split from the mainland 65 years ago, under its control.
The protest is the most serious challenge to Ma's signature policy of moving Taiwan ever closer to China by tying their economies together. Since he took office in May 2008, he has superintended a drastic upsurge in the number of cross-strait flights, and pushed through more than a dozen commercial agreements with China, including a partial free trade deal that slashed tariffs on scores of items in 2010.
China's chief negotiator with Taiwan, Chen Deming, told a forum in Guangzhou on Sunday that he would be "deeply regretful" if the trade pact failed, and that it could boost Taiwan's economy, according to China's official Xinhua News Agency.
350,000 Protest Taiwan's Trade Pact With China
by JENNY W. HSU - Sunday, March 30, 2014
by JENNY W. HSU - Sunday, March 30, 2014
Protesters gathered outside the parliament in Taipei on Sunday.
TAIPEI—Hundreds of thousands of people gathered outside the Presidential Office Building in downtown Taipei on Sunday, as protests against a trade deal between Taiwan and China intensify.
Protest organizers claimed 350,000 people, dressed in black, were staging a sit-in in front of the building, which is home to the offices of Taiwan's president.
Taipei police said there were 210,000 protesters. Organizers said the crowd was growing in size and is expected to sprawl toward the legislative building two blocks away, which hundreds of student protesters have occupied for nearly two weeks.
At the heart of the contention is the Cross-Strait Service in Trade Agreement signed between Taipei and Beijing last year. The pact, according to Taiwan government, will open service industries such as banking, health care and food catering to companies across the Taiwan Strait. Opponents say the agreement will favor conglomerates and leave small to medium enterprises in Taiwan struggling to compete. They also argue the negotiation process wasn't transparent and are worried China could exert more influence over Taiwan as the two economies grow closer. The protesters' demands include a retraction of the pact and setting up a mechanism to oversee all cross-Strait deals.
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said last week the deal would help the country become more competitive, and that demonstrators' concerns are unfounded.
He said a failure to pass the pact will damage Taiwan's reputation as a trade partner, and could be a setback to its relationship with China, which has warmed in recent years.
Since Taiwan and China split some 60 years ago, the Taiwan Strait has been a perennial flash point in the region, with Beijing vowing to reclaim the self-ruled island by force if necessary.
But tensions have eased since Mr. Ma took office in 2008, with the two sides increasing communications and trade. However, a student-led movement against the trade pact, dubbed the "sunflower movement," started two weeks ago after a ruling Chinese Nationalist Party lawmaker pushed the first reading of the pact at a review session by announcing the completion of the review without bipartisan discussion. In response, a group of university students stormed into the legislative building on March 17 and took over the main meeting chamber.
The movement has since then attracted more supporters, with as many as 20,000 protesters holding the legislative building at one point. Mr. Ma, also chairman of the Kuomintang ruling party, or KMT, on March 25 offered to meet with the students to hear their concerns. However, students refused to meet and demanded a guarantee from Mr. Ma that he won't take disciplinary action against any KMT legislators who support their cause. In the past week, several attempts to reach a compromise between the KMT and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party over the pact's review process have failed. The KMT wants to ratify the pact at the plenary session, while the DPP says the review must take place at a committee level in which officials involved in the negotiation process can be summoned to answer questions.
As the deadlock between the government and protesters drags on, some people in Taiwan have urged the protesters to retreat from the legislative building and let lawmakers go back to work.
Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, a government think tank, said earlier the agreement could add 12,000 jobs to Taiwan's services sector, with the biggest beneficiaries being retail and storage sectors.
It could also add around 0.025-0.034 percentage point to Taiwan's gross domestic product, it said.
The service sectors account for nearly 70% of Taiwan's GDP and employ more than 60% of the island's workforce, according to the Bureau of Foreign Trade.
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