Last week’s student protests at NTU against former Premier Jiang Yi-huah are a snapshot of Taiwan’s current political moment.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/12/24
By Brian Hioe
Credit: 中岑 范姜 / Flickr
A public outcry has emerged after student activists disrupted a talk at National Taiwan University (NTU) on Dec. 18 by former premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), calling for Jiang to be held responsible for the actions of the “324” attempted storming of the Executive Yuan during the 2014 Sunflower Movement.
Jiang was Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)’s premier from Feb. 2013 to Nov. 2014 and he is held as responsible for the police violence which took place against student occupiers of the Executive Yuan by many, something which took place after an attempt by student occupiers to take over the building on Mar. 24, 2014. Namely, as premier, Jiang would have had direct authority over whether police force was taken against students or not, much as how during the course of the movement, occupiers of the Legislative Yuan were not evicted because Kuomintang (KMT) majority speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) did not give police the order to do so. For his part, however, Jiang has either denied responsibility for police actions or otherwise justified the actions of police as necessary.
The “324” attempted storming of the Executive Yuan was an attempt to escalate the Sunflower Movement after close to one week of inaction from the Ma administration. The attempt to storm the Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s cabinet, led to violent reprisals from the Taiwanese police, with the heavy use of riot police and water cannons. [FULL STORY]