The Initial Cause of the Movement
Taiwan's Sunflower Student Movement initially began as a result of a controversial Cross-Strait Services Trade Agreement (CSSTA) that was signed hastily into law without full support of either the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) or the Kuomintang (KMT), and much less the full support of the Taiwanese people. On the evening of March 18th, "a group of students from the Black Island Youth Alliance slipped past the light security at the legislature and stormed into the legislative chamber" and by the morning of March 19th, thousands of activists, most being university students, had surrounded the legislature, birthing the Sunflower Student Movement(7).
The signing of the Cross-Strait Services Trade Agreement without the full support of either party caused many "representatives of civil society, business and academia, as well as some legislators...[to be] taken aback by [the CSSTA's] breadth and scope"(7). Furthermore, the CSSTA reawakened factional disagreements within the KMT, many legislators who admitted to being uncertain of the CSSTA themselves, citing possible economic and national security implications.
The students, in recognizing that the government's "narrow democratic rules...no longer worked and would likely spell disaster for their country"(6), decided to "fight those unforgivable ones / fight the ones that are making us bleed"(18). After emerging from the Legislative Yuan on April 10th, they were greeted by "tens of thousands of people...many of them carrying sunflowers...[and] a full brass band [that] played the song “Island’s Sunrise” (島嶼天光) ...which has become the anthem for the movement"(8). Yet they were not done. "'This is war'", the leadership definitively cried out. |