Weiting Chen Discusses the Sunflower Motion, 10 Years Later – The Diplomat

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In March 2014, the Kuomintang or KMT – then in command of each Taiwan’s presidency and the legislature – tried to power via a controversial commerce pact with China, the Cross-Strait Service Commerce Settlement (CSSTA). The transfer drew outrage from civil society over considerations that the deal was opaque and would grant China an excessive amount of affect over Taiwan’s economic system.

On March 18, days earlier than the KMT deliberate to place the invoice to a last vote, scholar teams occupied the Legislative Yuan to point out their anger over the CSSTA. It quickly grew to become clear that the scholars weren’t alone – public opinion wished to place the brakes on then-President Ma Ying-jeou’s makes an attempt to attract Taiwan nearer to China. A whole lot of 1000’s turned out to point out their help for the scholars in a rally on March 30. The occupation and associated rallies now had a reputation: The Sunflower Motion.

It grew to become a turning level in Taiwan’s politics. Not solely was the CSSTA scrapped, however the KMT suffered main losses within the subsequent election in 2016. It has not been in a position to win the presidency since, most not too long ago shedding within the 2024 polls. In the meantime, the Sunflower Motion grew to become a breeding floor for political expertise for pan-Inexperienced events.

Weiting Chen was one of many scholar leaders of the Sunflower Motion. On this interview, Chen, now a geopolitical analyst, discusses the elements that helped the Sunflower protesters succeed, and the way the motion continues to reverberate in Taiwan’s politics right now.

What have been the foremost considerations that drove the occupation of the Legislative Yuan in 2014? Was it concern over China’s affect, Taiwan’s sovereignty, the “black field” nature of the invoice, or all the above?

The entire above. Earlier than the occupation motion started in March 2014, civic teams and numerous industry-related organizations had already began protesting in opposition to the content material of the Cross-Strait Service Commerce Settlement (CSSTA) when it was signed in June 2013. These protests included sectors like telecommunications, publishing, promoting, media, and healthcare, all elevating considerations that the commerce deal might threaten Taiwan’s nationwide safety or influence Taiwanese staff adversely. Due to this fact, these essentially against the commerce settlement shaped the core of the motion.

After the occupation motion began in March 2014, extra folks started to concentrate to this difficulty. These people weren’t essentially against the commerce settlement in its entirety however shortly grew to become conscious of the federal government’s lack of transparency (the “black field” difficulty) in negotiating and reviewing the settlement. They believed the federal government had did not conduct correct influence assessments, therefore supporting the necessity for stronger supervisory mechanisms to scrutinize the CSSTA.

Nevertheless, whether or not it was teams against the CSSTA itself or these in opposition to the “black field” course of, a typical backside line was the need to forestall a rise in Chinese language affect in Taiwan via the CSSTA, which might undermine Taiwan’s sovereignty.