Introduction

On 18 March 2014, outraged students, university faculty, and workers from nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) marched on the Legislative Yuan – Taiwan’s unicameral parliament – to protest the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement, a free trade pact with China that protesters believed would harm the economy and leave Taiwan vulnerable to political pressure from Beijing. Some 300 activists occupied the legislative chamber, while hundreds more gathered outside. This unprecedented occupation lasted for 24 days and there was also a demonstration on 30 March when about 500,000 people surrounded parliament. The media dubbed the action the ‘Sunflower Movement’ when a florist sent bunches of sunflowers to the protesters at the parliament building, but this name was not accepted by many of the activists. All of my research participants for this chapter prefer to call it the ‘3/18 Parliament Occupation Movement’, or the 3/18 Movement for short. This term is used throughout the chapter.

The movement opposing the free trade pact was one of a string of protests against President Ying-Jeou Ma’s embrace of China since taking office in 2008. For example, there was an anti– Media Monopoly Campaign in 2012, fuelled by widespread worry that China intended to use the mass media to spread its political propaganda and control Taiwan. Since 2008, citizens of Taiwan have formed many NGOs, including Taiwan Democracy Watch and the Democratic Front Against the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement, to put pressure on Taiwan’s government to sustain democracy and national sovereignty.

The 3/18 Movement’s parliamentary occupation was planned secretly by a small group of activists – students and professionals – in an informal network based on their cooperation in a series of social movements and protests in previous years (Hsu et al, 2019). According to my research participants, no one had expected that the occupation would last for more than three weeks. After several unsuccessful forced eviction attempts by the police, the activists occupied several areas: the Main Chamber of the parliament, the yard of the parliament (separated from the Main Chamber and the yard by some police officers) and the streets surrounding the parliament building.