Just recently the Taiwanese government has made a trade agreement with China that has caused massive protests in Taiwan's capital of Taipei. Protestors are claiming that the trade agreement would leave Taiwan open to Chinese pressure and would hurt small businesses and job opportunities in Taiwan. Many of the protestors also believe, as stated by the campaign managers, that the agreement would make Taiwan dependent on China. President Ma Ying-Jeou has a different view on the trade deal and in fact supports it. He claims that the trade agreement will in fact bring economic benefits to Taiwan, the opposite of what the protesters believe. The amount of protestors have reached numbers in the hundreds of thousands. The Taiwanese government claims that at most there are only one-hundred thousand, while campaign managers claim the number is around seven-hundred thousand. The protestors are carrying signs with "defend democracy, withdraw the trade deal" written on them. The protesters are also supporting the Taiwanese students that have been protesting the deal by occupying parliament for two weeks now. The protestors are demanding that the trade agreement be completely thrown out and trade between Beijing and Taiwan be monitored more closely. In recent days the President has been trying to make concessions by having legislature review the bill however he will not throw out the bill.
I agree more with the protestors rather than the Taiwanese government or President. If that many citizens believe the trade agreement is bad then it must be. It also puts into question if their democracy is completely working correctly. If citizens have to protest something as simple as a bill then maybe their representatives are not following what the people want. Which would go against what a democracy is and stands for. However if the representatives are listening to the people and voicing their opinions then the protests should not be happening. If the representatives are actually doing their jobs and those protestors are just not getting their way, that should not be happening. Democracy does not work by protesting every time you do not get your way. If you do not get your way, you have to wait or try to get votes to try to change what you do not like. We will find out whether or not the representatives are actually following what the people are saying in time. However another point to remember is that China has always thought of Taiwan as part of China and not a separate country.
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