Taiwan Parliament occupied by protesters for 1st time in history
iReport CNN | 18 March 2014
Taiwan Parliament Occupied by protesters 1st time in History
For the first time in history, the Taiwan Parliament (Legislative Yuan) was occupied by protesters, who fought against a trade agreement with China. Background story below.
===== Live update as of early 19 March =====
Live broadcast stream of the protest:
– Inside the Parliament http://www.ustream.tv/channel/longson3000
– Outside the Parliament https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9Dy0IMmi0
http://www.justin.tv/anniversario
At 09:30 3/19 President Ma said in a news that the opposite party DPP should not break the law. http://m.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/politics/20140319/362559
At 09:00 3/19 The Parliament announced suspension of meeting. The meeting was scheduled to start at 09:00, but currently the floor was still occupied by protesters.
At 08:40 3/19. Police had tried to enter into the floor for four times, but failed again. http://newtalk.tw/news/2014/03/19/45390.html
At 08:00 3/19. Rumor goes that the government had called police from other cities to Taipei. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=631719033567182&id=523369387735481
At 06:20 3/19. The 2000 protesters oudside the Parliament started to REMOVE the police. Numerous policemen were lifted by protesters and moved out of the Parliament.
At 06:00 3/19 Police started to remove protesters from the floor. Fei-Fan Lin (林飛帆), the leader of protest as well as a National Taiwan University student in Dept of Political Science, invited all 1000 s protesters outside the building to enter into the floor for stopping the police. Here comes the video. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=765910343421039&set=vb.100000062417263&type=2&theater
At 05:30 3/19 Police again tried to enter into the floor. Legislators are asked to leave.
At 05:00 3/19 DPP legislators sat in front of the gate, trying to defend the police entering into the floor.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=765883003423773&set=pcb.765883243423749&type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=765882896757117&set=pcb.765883243423749&type=1&theater
At 04:47, 3/19 A policeman stripped down his uniform and shield, and then raised his two hands to show support to the protesters before returning home. Meanwhile, other police blocked the restroom.
At 04:05, 3/19 The entrance gate was broken. Two DPP legislators tried to stop the policemen from storming into the floor. http://ppt.cc/6mO3@.jpg
At 03:37, 3/19 Police tried to break the front gate. Protesters pushed the gates to resist entry. The Board of Parliament (Legislative Yuan) was abandoned in front of the building. Apart from 400 protesters in the building, more than 1000 new protesters arrived around the Parliament, supporting this occupation.
https://www.facebook.com/civilmedia/photos/a.129045361879.104395.79765636879/10152271811426880/?type=1&theater
At 02:06, 3/19 More police gained entry into the main building.
At 01:20, 3/19 The Premier Jiang Yi-huah called Legislative Speaker/Chair Wang Jin-pyng to allow the police enter into the building. Related news can be found here
http://www.stormmediagroup.com/opencms/news/detail/a60fc4b0-aebd-11e3-b20e-ef2804cba5a1/?uuid=a60fc4b0-aebd-11e3-b20e-ef2804cba5a1
At 01:20, 3/19 A policeman shared the information on online discussion board PTT that stand-by policemen in other districts were called to go to Taipei.
At 00:30, 3/19, the police asked lawyers and professors to leave the building, and they are going to arrest students.
At 00:05, 3/19, numerous DPP legislators entered into the building and sat with the protesters. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152025998916270&set=a.186955736269.129790.45289011269&type=1
At 00:00, 3/19, the protesters clarified their three major points:
1. Cancel the current agreement and restart negotiation.
2. The police should not enter into the Parliament, which should be owned by the public.
3. Before discussing any further agreement with China in the future, the Parliament should establish legal process for reviewing.
Their announcement is here https://www.facebook.com/antiblacktw/posts/616812361722942
At 23:00, police tried to break into the building but failed.
The police announced they would definitely enter the building and arrest the protesters at 12:30.
===== Story =====
The Service Trade Agreement (服貿協議) is one of the biggest trade agreement between China and Taiwan. Since it was secretly signed in June, 2013 in Shanghai, the opposition party Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and several civil groups requested that it be reviewed through the Parliament. On Jun 25, 2013, the ruling party KMT reached consensus with DPP to review the agreement "sentence-by-sentence." According to a survey conducted by Liberty Times, 70% of Taiwanese citizens believe that the STA should be reviewed sentence-by-sentence.
The major opposing argument against STA concerns its negative impact on national security and lower-class workers, which might be widely ignored by the KMT government. Once STA took effect, many opponents of the trade pact worried that the infrastructure including roads and online service in Taiwan could be taken over by China companies.
On this Monday (3/18), the agreement was scheduled to be scrutinized by the Internal Administration Committee. Due to a huge conflict between the two parties, the meeting did not take place. In the afternoon, the Chair of committee, KMT Legislator Chang Ching-chung, suddenly declared outside the podium that the agreement was now "passed to the Parliament for vote."
This declaration was regarded by DPP and civil groups as a violation to the Constitution as well as violating the common practice in the Parliament. Several civil groups organized protests, and more citizens were mobilized through the Internet to gather in front of the Parliament.
On Mar 18, 21:00, protesters stormed into the Parliament after hearing KMT announcing there would be no further review on the trade agreement. Protesters entered the building through all entrances, and they used chairs to prevent police entering and arresting them. Moreover, protesters broke into Chang Ching-chung’s office, and found numerous business cards from Chinese companies.
Updated photos are here http://www.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/politics/20140318/362423/1/
or the first time in the history of Republic of China (Taiwan), protestors occupied the main building of the Parliament.
References:
1. The live broadcast of protest event
– Inside the Parliament http://www.ustream.tv/channel/longson3000
– Outside the Parliament https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9Dy0IMmi0
2. The major argument on the negative impact of the trade agreement, analyzed by Prof. Chen from the Dept of Economics, National Taiwan University
http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~ntuperc/conference-1-files/20130725_3_1.pdf
3.Other English-version news reports
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201403180044.aspx
– Taipei Times http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/03/19/2003586009?fb_action_ids=10151977815584109&fb_action_types=og.likes
– Gulf Globalpost http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140318/taiwan-mps-stage-fast-protest-at-china-trade-pact
http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201403180044.aspx
– China Post http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2014/03/19/403168/DPP-calls.htm
– CNA http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201403180044.aspx?fb_action_ids=679247008780019&fb_action_types=og.likes
– BuzzFeed http://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/taiwanese-students-occupy-parliament-to-protest-illegal-chin
– LE FEGARO http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2014/03/18/97001-20140318FILWWW00451-taiwan-des-etudiants-occupent-le-parlement.php
– The Debrief http://www.ketagalanmedia.com/2014/03/18/debrief-31814/
