After occupying the legislative chamber for 24 days in protest against the government’s handling of the cross-strait service trade agreement, student-led protesters last night peacefully withdrew from the Legislative Yuan with a heart-warming rally in which participants shared their thoughts on the action and expressed gratitude for all the support they had received.
While the protest at the legislature might have ended — although more challenges are likely to be made to the President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration’s work on the controversial pact — one thing is certain: The Sunflower movement has won the hearts and respect of many older Taiwanese.
Until not so long ago, people born in Taiwan in the 1980s and 1990s were commonly mocked as belonging to the “strawberry generation,” in reference to a perception that they were work-shy, soft and unable to deal with pressure. Some adults, disappointed by a seemingly apathetic attitude in young people, have even come to call them the “ice-cube generation,” implying that they will melt without any dramatic change in the environment.
However, the negative perception of young Taiwanese has substantially changed with the Sunflower movement — to the extent that some people have jokingly said that they feel like yielding their seat on the MRT when a young person boards as a show of respect.
The large number of college and graduate students who are part of the Sunflower movement have done many people proud, demonstrating a remarkable level of resilience, maturity and organizational skills, and most importantly, an acute sense of awareness about the various challenges they and the country face, as well as displaying a depth of understanding for the country’s democratization.
One aspect of the movement that has touched many people is that the protesters joined it out of a genuine belief in democracy and a sense of duty. They wanted to do their part for the protest without desiring the media limelight as politicians often do.
Consider the case of Ku Liu (谷琉), a 19-year-old freshman at Pingtung’s Meiho University, who during the occupation of the legislative chamber was assigned to guard the No. 6 door. For the past 21 days, he dutifully attended the entrance without seeking media attention by standing quietly next to student leaders Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), upon whom the media have largely fixed their attention.
In the past, youngsters have been criticized for enjoying the fruits of democracy, which was hard-won by their pioneering elders, without thinking of how they might contribute to or solidify these achievements.
However, through the Sunflower movement, they have showed this criticism to be unfounded.
Student protester Chiang Chi-chi (江其冀) said that after the withdrawal from the Legislative Yuan, he wants to pursue a master’s degree in economics “and become an economist who is not manipulated by politics,” while 22-year-old Keng Hsiang-hsuan (孔祥瑄), a member of the Black Island Nation Youth — the group responsible for spearheading the siege of the Legislative Yuan — said that “the Taiwan in my mind is a free and democratic nation. Our parents have failed to safeguard Taiwan’s democracy for us, but we would rather die than let our children grow up in a land without democracy.”
It is encouraging and comforting to hear words of maturity and wisdom from young people, and Ma’s government officials should listen well rather than occupying themselves with attempts to portray them as rioters.
While the Sunflower movement last night expressed its gratitude to the public for their support, Taiwanese in return ought to thank the protesters for drawing attention to issues of critical importance and increasing awareness and civic engagement.
In late January, Taiwan’s first indigenous submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), completed its first submerged dive, reaching a depth of roughly 50m during trials in the waters off Kaohsiung. By March, it had managed a fifth dive, still well short of the deep-water and endurance tests required before the navy could accept the vessel. The original delivery deadline of November last year passed months ago. CSBC Corp, Taiwan, the lead contractor, now targets June and the Ministry of National Defense is levying daily penalties for every day the submarine remains unfinished. The Hai Kun was supposed to be
Reports about Elon Musk planning his own semiconductor fab have sparked anxiety, with some warning that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) could lose key customers to vertical integration. A closer reading suggests a more measured conclusion: Musk is advancing a strategic vision of in-house chip manufacturing, but remains far from replacing the existing foundry ecosystem. For TSMC, the short-term impact is limited; the medium-term challenge lies in supply diversification and pricing pressure, only in the long term could it evolve into a structural threat. The clearest signal is Musk’s announcement that Tesla and SpaceX plan to develop a fab project dubbed “Terafab”
Most schoolchildren learn that the circumference of the Earth is about 40,000km. They do not learn that the global economy depends on just 160 of those kilometers. Blocking two narrow waterways — the Strait of Hormuz and the Taiwan Strait — could send the economy back in time, if not to the Stone Age that US President Donald Trump has been threatening to bomb Iran back to, then at least to the mid-20th century, before the Rolling Stones first hit the airwaves. Over the past month and a half, Iran has turned the Strait of Hormuz, which is about 39km wide at
The ongoing Middle East crisis has reinforced an uncomfortable truth for Taiwan: In an increasingly interconnected and volatile world, distant wars rarely remain distant. What began as a regional confrontation between the US, Israel and Iran has evolved into a strategic shock wave reverberating far beyond the Persian Gulf. For Taiwan, the consequences are immediate, material and deeply unsettling. From Taipei’s perspective, the conflict has exposed two vulnerabilities — Taiwan’s dependence on imported energy and the risks created when Washington’s military attention is diverted. Together, they offer a preview of the pressures Taiwan might increasingly face in an era of overlapping geopolitical
RSS