The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday it would mobilize 100,000 people to protest against the upcoming talks between Taiwan and China in Taichung next week.
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) are scheduled to meet next Tuesday through Thursday for the fourth round of cross-strait talks.
DPP Spokesman Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said that a protest march would be held this Sunday afternoon, with the demonstrators splitting into two groups and converging at a downtown parking lot at 5pm for a rally.
DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and four other senior party figures — former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former premiers Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃), Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) — as well as Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝), will join the protests.
The DPP will urge the government to “stop the closed-door talks and look after the people” and call on the public to “speak up and be the masters” of their own fate, the spokesman said.
Demonstrators will be encouraged to take pots and pans to the protest and create as much as noise as possible to convey their dissatisfaction with the government’s approach to cross-strait negotiations, he said.
“Those who care about issues relating to public livelihoods, those who are concerned about substandard products from China and the industries that would suffer as a result of the proposed economic cooperation framework agreement [ECFA]” should come out on Sunday,” Tsai Chi-chang said.
“We demand that the public make the decisions in cross-strait talks and that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) listen to the public,” he said.
The goal is to mobilize 100,000 protesters, but the more the better, he said.
“While the protest will focus on making the public’s voice be heard, it will be peaceful and rational,” he added.
In related developments, an action alliance of several independence groups in central Taiwan said yesterday it would organize a group of human rights lawyers to provide the public with legal advice about their rights.
Chen said that many lawyers have misgivings about the upcoming cross-strait meeting and 16 lawyers have joined the group. If the government or police “go overboard” against the people, the lawyers will advise on ways to seek assistance and redress, he added.
DPP Taichung City councilors Chen Shu-hua (陳淑華), Lai Chia-wei (賴佳微) and Chi Li-yu (紀麗玉), who unfurled large protest banners last year at the hotel where the ARATS delegation was staying in Taipei, said excessive measures by police had spurred public outrage.
“If people are allowed to freely express their views, there will be no disturbance like last year’s, because Taiwanese are very friendly,” Lai said.
National Police Agency Deputy Director-General Liu Chin-chang (劉勤章) said that a designated zone for protesters would not be cordoned off and people would be allowed to move freely in and out of the area.
There will also be no body searches by police, except in special circumstances, Liu said.
During the SEF-ARATS talks in Taipei in November last year, Chen Yunlin was besieged by protesters at a Taipei hotel after attending a dinner party.
The Chinese delegation was unable to leave the hotel until after midnight, despite a strong police presence.
Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said earlier this month that this should not be allowed to happen again.
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