Taiwan students protest (Sunflower Movement) remains over the Service Trade Pact singing with China

Now it comes to the 18th day for those students occupying Taiwan’s lawmaking building, the Legislature Yuan, in protest over Taiwan-China Service Trade Pact which was passed hastily at the Yuan’s internal affair committee in early March 2014, and required by Taiwan’s President Ma to be effective before June 2014. Ma, doubling as the head of the ruling KMT party, has forcibly ordered its KMT lawmakers to unanimously support the pact with no room for any revision before June. As the KMT owns a majority in the Yuan, a pass is widely-viewed inevitable.

Besides the sharply rising inflation, annoying jobless rate, and dirt-cheap wage level similar to that 15 years ago, those “Black-shirt” students are angry over the inappropriate measures adopted by the KMT, including its back-room negotiation with China even without any prior notice to its own KMT lawmakers. Meanwhile, the opposition party, DPP, is turning weak and gearing itself up for the massive elections at 2014 end. In face of the uncertain future, students decided to voice displeasure toward President Ma who enjoys approval rating as low as 9%..

The pact, as part of the sub-pacts under the Taiwan-China ECFA inked in 2010, raised doubt about its efficiency to lift Taiwanese welfare, particularly amid the fact that the island in past few years, or since Ma’s ruling in 2008, has deteriorated financially and economically, albeit the cross-Taiwan Straits political ties did improve. Ma has vowed to stimulate economy, yet with results benefitting those 1% wealthy conglomerates as shown by the poor monthly wage well capped at the minimum NT$22,000. His efforts, being driven by Taiwan makers’ increased investment in China, have however prompted youngsters to look for jobs in neighboring nations by handling poker-shuffling and cows-killing.

Partly motivated by riot police’s fierce moves to strain students' attempt to storm into Taiwan’s Cabinet building on March 23, as many as 500,000 people on March 30 wearing black shirts took to the street in Taipei city to call for the KMT-led government to first pass the cross-Straits oversight draft before getting the Service Trade Pact passed. They protested not just over the potentially rising jobless rate after the pact is effective, but also the so-called reunification between Taiwan and China - a nerve-racking threat among some Taiwanese who reject the communism. Speculation has swirled that Ma and China’s leader, Xi Jinping will meet at Ma’s current tenure due 2016. The pact will further pave the way for that.   

China has stepped up its economic and political clouts in Taiwan, via nonstop Taiwan investment there. What has haunted the island is China’s own claims to retake it after KMT lost civil war and fled to Taiwan in 1949. Ma has claimed the pact will bring more boon than bane to the island, adding that people could find higher paid jobs in Chinese cities, such as Shanghai. As thus, Taiwanese must be brave enough to face future competition on the openings of domestic consumption industries, including hair-cutting, tourism, hotel and financial, etc. Recent media headlines said that Taiwan has lost its foreign-trade competitiveness against Korea which had won more FTAs.

Global economies might have been on path to recover, and Taiwan corporates in 2013 earned a 37% yoy jump of total profit. However, few of them announced a wage hike, not to mention significant job openings. Taiwan has been too reliant on the manufacturing sector operating on the ODM/OEM modes. Innovation and the move into higher-end tech sectors should play a more pivotal role  in Taiwan economy than the pact.

To certain extent, some people opposed the pact not out of the fears of KMT’s China-leaning policy, as long as the pact will boost Taiwan economy as they expect. China now is too big to be ignored by Taiwan, but doubts remain about whom at the end will be benefitted from the pact. The KMT was viewed to have betrayed the democratic system in the review of Service Trade Pact, a folly that it must be responsible for to remedy. More critically, it must try to calm the worry by asserting no future Taiwan-China deal to be made with ulterior motives and at expense of Taiwanese interest.  China at the same time must stop its long-exisiting threat against other nations for them to first sign FTAs with Taiwan, as well as leave Taiwan alone in global political arena. 

God bless Taiwan !!!

Link to the protest on March 30, 2014. 
The rally is the largest ever in number of protesters.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ASAfRw99Gg&feature=em-share_video_user