Taiwanese community in Melbourne shows support for Sunflower Movement

About 500 members of the Taiwanese community rallied outside the State Library in Melbourne yesterday. The rally was part of a worldwide action with other events taking place in major cities of Australia, Europe, Asia and North America to show solidarity with Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement.

At the same time as the event in Melbourne a crowd estimated at 350,000 was turning out in Taipei. This represented a massive show of public support for the student-led Sunflower Movement which has occupied the Legislative Yuan in Taipei since 18 March. The movement’s key aim is to ensure that the Cross-Strait Service and Trade Agreement (CSSTA) and other agreements with China are subject to proper scrutiny by the legislature.

Green Party protests to save tree in Taipei City

Green Party candidate for the Taipei City No. 6 District by-election, Calvin Wen (溫炳原), spent 26 hours in a camphor tree on the site of the Old Songshan Tobacco Factory (松山菸廠) in Taipei to protest and try to prevent its removal.

The protest began on Friday afternoon as Green Party Taiwan members discovered the last tree was about to be removed. Calvin was able to climb the tree with assistance from several other Green Party members who were  then removed from the site by police. An agreement was later reached with police to allow four people to accompany Calvin at the base of the tree. The Green Party argued that the removal of the tree was illegal as the the second environmental impact assessment for the site had not yet passed.

I heard the news of this incident on Friday night and went to the site early on Saturday morning. I found three people had slept outside the gate of the site on Guangfu South Road. I was able to enter the site around 8:00am and take some photos and talk to Calvin.

At 9:30am a TV crew from CTS (華視) arrived but police refused them entry to the site. Shortly after crews from PTS (公視) and SET (三立) also arrived and police continued to deny the media entry to the site. At about 10:00am a press conference was held outside the main gate to the site on Guangfu South Road.

Green Party Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said that this was a non-violent protest to protect the largest tree in the Taipei City lowland area. Protests to save trees began with the Chipko movement in India in 1973 and have since been carried out in many countries around the world. The site is being redeveloped as a 24 hour commercial facility in a BOT project. The Green Party and local residents have long campaigned for the site to become a park.

At 11:05am the police admitted media to the site, but all TV crews had left by that time. I was able to gain access to the site for the second time when I took the photo at the top of this post.

At 1:05pm two out of uniform police officers entered the site claiming they were going to take Calvin down from the tree. I believe one of these officers was the chief of the Xinyi District Police Headquarters. There was a subsequent flurry of phone calls and activity. Calvin called me to say the police said they were going to take him down from the tree and asked me to contact international media. Green Party supporters moved to the basketball courts on Zhongxiao East Road where there was a view of the tree.

 

It was during this time that police forcefully removed the two people who were accompanying Calvin. Calvin also began to climb higher in the tree at this time. The fire brigade also arrived during this time, bringing a hydraulic platform and other equipment. After a clash between protesters and police as firefighters brought equipment onto the site the police allowed media to enter the site 2:10pm. Several TV crews were there and I was able to enter with the media.

 

The fire brigade set two air cushions at the base of the tree for safety. The Xinyi District police chief climbed the tree to try to persuade Calvin to come down.

 

A hydraulic platform was put into place and at 3:20pm Calvin was brought down from the tree. At the same time several Green Party supporters ran onto the site in protest and were forcefully restrained by police.

As far as I know at no time during the incident did any officials from the Taipei City Government make any comment or attempt to address any of the legal issues regarding the removal of the tree. The Green Party plans to file a lawsuit against the Taipei City Government.

Update: A crew began work in the early hours of Sunday morning and removed the tree amidst protests by local residents and Green Party members.  In the afternoon I went to the gate on Guangfu South Road with three students to try to gain access to the site and photograph the tree after it had been moved. The previous day the Taipei City Education Department had said that people would be able to see the tree after it had been moved. One and a half hours of knocking on the gate and making polite requests was duly ignored by the police, City Government officials and staff inside. We were unable to gain access. The tree was visible on the back of a truck inside the site.

Links

• Green Party Taiwan halts tree removal at site of old Songshan Tobacco Factory – Taipei Times
• Green Party’s Calvin Wen forced down camphor tree – Taipei Times
• Taiwan environmentalists clash with police over old camphor tree – Taiwan News

Strawberry generation stands up

Taiwan’s twenty-somethings were labelled the “Strawberry generation” by their elders. They said they were soft and couldn’t stand up to pressure. However, the new student movement that has emerged in the wake of Chen Yunlin’s visit to Taiwan is anything but soft and weak. Taiwan’s youth are standing up for themselves and speaking out against the government’s abuses of power.

The students’ protest began on 6 November outside the Executive Yuan in response to the abusive acts of police towards peaceful protestors. In response to events of the previous days the protesters issued a statement with three demands: (1) President Ma and Premier Liu must publicly apologise to all citizens. (2) National Police Agency Director-General Wang Cho-chiun and National Security Bureau Director Tsai Chao-ming must step down. (3) The Legislative Yuan must revise the Parade and Assembly Law, which currently restricts the rights of the people.

On the evening of 7 November police forcefully removed the protesters from the front of the Executive Yuan. Police did this under the powers of the Assembly Law that the students were protesting against. The students then reconvened at Freedom Square (自由廣場) where the protest now continues.

Hsu Zen-shou (許仁碩), a law student at NTU and a spokesperson for the student protest in Taipei explained the protests were unaffilliated with political parties because the issue is about the people not parties. He said, “KMT and DPP are all the same. When I was a freshman I got hit by the DPP government and now I’m getting hit by the KMT government.”

Since Saturday morning the weather in Taipei has been cold and rainy. The students initially found it difficult to hire tents because it was an illegal protest. However, they have continued their protests in spite of the weather and this is symbolic of the students’ determination. “We always feel tired and wet and uncomfortable. But even if it rains cats and dogs we are still here,” Hsu said.

Students are simultaneously protesting in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Hsinchu and Taichung. Hsu said, “We keep in touch with them via the internet. When something happens they can know immediately. Nobody has done this kind of thing before.”

When asked how long the protest would go on for Hsu responded, “Whether we go back home or not is according to the decision of the people at the protest. We have no leader or leader group and any big decision is made by consensus at a group meeting.”

The students have now adopted the moniker “Wild Strawberry” Student Movement (野草莓學運). The name echoes the Wild Lily Movement (野百合學運) of 1990, a student led protest that led to Taiwan having direct elections. Hsu Zen-shou also said, “wild strawberries are small and grow close to the ground.  They are very strong and never give up.” Taiwan is going to hear a lot more from these students in the future.

*The movement now has an English-language blog, TAIWAN’s Wild Berries Movement, to complement the Chinese-language blog. There are live broadcasts of the protests on Yahoo Live (check the blogs for links). There is also a flickr group for photos of the Wild Strawberry movement.