Many foreigners joined the protest on Saturday to support the pan-green camp’s views and experience the atmosphere of a local political rally.
The rally was organized by the Democratic Progressive Party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union and a number of pro-localization groups, opposing substandard Chinese products, the “one China” principle, the recognition of Chinese diplomas and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) pro-China policies. Protesters also accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government of incompetence.
Maddalena, an Italian who came to Taiwan four years ago to study Chinese philosophy, said that demonstrations in Taiwan are quite different from those in her native country, where protests against educational reform took place recently.
“Most of the protesters in Italy are young and intellectual, while here we can see many middle-aged and elderly people,” she said in fluent Mandarin, adding that rallies generally had a peaceful atmosphere.
Some foreigners who participated in the protest were sympathetic to its outlook and demands.
A Japanese who works in Taiwan said he joined the rally to express opposition to China, as Japan and Taiwan both have had to deal with unsafe food imports from their giant neighbor and the economic threat posed by China, which has drawn considerable investment from Japanese companies.
He said, however, that in Japan, protest marches are generally organized by nongovernmental associations and that people rally spontaneously, while most protesters in Taiwan seem to be mobilized by political parties.
Kathryn, an Australian who has studied in Taipei for two months, said it would be best for Taiwan to remain independent from China to safeguard its democracy.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
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