With hugs and tearful farewells, hundreds of student activists who have occupied the Legislative Yuan for 24 days walked out of the legislative chamber yesterday into a cheering crowd who gave them a heroes’ welcome.
“Leaving the legislature and retreating from the legislative chamber was a very difficult decision to make, because we know that the expectations, responsibilities and pressures we will face after leaving the legislature will not be lower,” student leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) told the protesters on the legislative floor before asking all protesters to leave the room.
“I would like to stress that leaving here does not mean that we are giving up or backing down. In fact, this movement for democracy that began on March 18 is a continuation of Taiwan’s history of resistance and the quest for freedom that has been ongoing for more than 100 years. We will continue the history and we will never back down or give up,” he added.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Lin said that after leaving the legislature, he and his partners planned to travel the country to connect with the approximately 500,000 people who took part in a demonstration on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building on March 30.
“The 500,000 people are not just a number, and our next step is to go into different corners of the country to get to know these people,” Lin said. “The campaign is not over yet. We came with dreams in our minds and we leave with responsibilities on our shoulders.”
He also warned that if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) broke the promise by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) — to adopt legislation to monitor cross-strait agreements before reviewing the cross-strait service trade agreement — a bigger protest would be mobilized.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
“Occupation of the Legislative Yuan is only the preface to our action, the first chapter will soon start within civil society,” Lin said. “We will be back, we definitely will.”
“We will definitely meet again,” a group of students told each other as they hugged before leaving the legislative chamber, while others were busy cleaning up and restoring the chamber to its original state.
Another student leader, Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), thanked all those who took part in the movement, regardless of their age, profession or background, while dismissing the media’s naming of the movement as a “student movement.”
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“From the very beginning, this movement has not been a ‘student movement,’ as many people who are not in the movement define it. It is a movement that involves all citizens of this country, as well as many foreign residents living in Taiwan and Taiwanese living overseas,” Chen said.
He thanked medical personnel, lawyers and members of other civic groups, notably the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan, for their support and help.
While many people made a distinction between protesters at the Legislative Yuan and those who once besieged the Executive Yuan on March 23, Chen said that those activists are also their partners and that the violent crackdown by the police against those people should be remembered.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Besides clearing all the posters, slogans, banners, medical equipment, food and water from the legislative chamber and removing piles of chairs that blocked the chamber’s entrance, the students also returned the speaker’s gavel and placed it on the table in front of the speaker’s seat before leaving.
“Doing so is a symbolic gesture that we are now returning the legislative chamber to lawmakers,” a student said. “We hope that our lawmakers will, from now on, keep what the people want in their minds while formulating legislation.”
The students also left a classical satirical work, The Bureaucracy Exposed (官場現形記), on the table, with a note urging the legislature to adopt the promised monitoring legislation before reviewing the cross-strait trade pact and refrain from listening to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), but listen to the public instead.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Originally scheduled to deliver a speech, Lin and Chen left the rally before it ended at about 8:30pm.
After the rally, some still refused to leave, and as of press time, several civic groups, including the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan, were still rallying outside the legislature, saying that they would wait to be evicted by police.
Meanwhile, shortly after the students’ departure from the Legislative Yuan, the National Police Agency ordered forensic investigators from the Taipei City Police Department’s Forensic Science Center to collect fingerprints from the legislative chamber.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The agency also dispatched police officers from the Special Police Sixth Headquarters to surround and take over the legislature.
The move has raised speculations that the government might be planning to take legal action against the students.
Additional reporting by Chen Hsiao-yi
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
US-CHINA SUMMIT: MOFA welcomed US reassurance of no change in its Taiwan policy; Trump said he did not comment when Xi talked of opposing independence US President Donald Trump yesterday said he has not made a decision on whether to move forward with a major arms package for Taiwan after hearing concerns about it from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Trump’s comments on Taiwan came as he flew back to Washington after wrapping up critical talks in which both leaders said important progress was made in stabilizing US-China relations even as deep differences persist between the world’s two biggest powers on Iran and Taiwan. “I will make a determination,” Trump said, adding: “I’ll be making decisions. But, you know, I think the last thing we need right
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
SECURITY: Taipei presses the US for arms supplies, saying the arms sales are not only a reflection of the US security commitment to Taiwan but also serve as a mutual deterrent against regional threats Taiwan is committed to preserving the cross-strait “status quo” and contributing to regional peace and stability, the Presidential Office said yesterday. “It is an undeniable fact that the Republic of China is a sovereign and independent democratic nation,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) reiterated, adding that Beijing has no right to claim sovereignty over Taiwan. The statements came after US President Donald Trump warned against Taiwanese independence. Trump wrapped up a state visit to Beijing on Friday, during which Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had pressed him not to support Taiwan. Taiwan depends heavily on US security backing to deter China from carrying
RSS