Sunflower movement set right economic path for Taiwan: DPP

Taipei, March 15 (CNA) The 2014 Sunflower Student Movement has paved the way for Taiwan's economic development, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) argued Friday ahead of the 10th anniversary of the campaign that took aim at closer economic integration with China.

The Sunflower Movement was triggered by a decision by the then Kuomintang (KMT) -controlled Legislature to fast track the review and approval of the Cross-Strait Services Trade Agreement (CSSTA) with China.

On March 18, hundreds of students broke into the Legislative Yuan to block the agreement, and occupied it until April 10, while thousands demonstrated outside the complex during that time.

To date, the trade-in-services agreement with China has remained stalled in the Legislature.

Taiwan's choice to distance itself from China economically was proven correct, said DPP Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶), former Legislator Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧) and several scholars at a press conference in Taipei.

Wang Guo-chen (王國臣), assistant researcher of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said Taiwan's growth rate averaged 3 percent from 2014 to 2023, while Hong Kong, despite its strong economic ties with China, grew at an average rate of 1 percent.

This suggests that the proposed pact between Taiwan and China would not have guaranteed improved economic conditions or provided a bigger incentive for foreign investment to flow into Taiwan at the time, Wang argued.

Looking back at the movement, Wu said, Taiwan was also the first country to send an alarm to the world to avoid tying its economy and politics with China, which was proven right.

Even then, China's share of Taiwan's exports remained at about 40-41 percent after a DPP administration took over in 2016 and peaked at 42-43 percent in 2020 and 2021.

It then fell below 40 percent in 2022 and hit 35 percent in 2023 as supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic led to the diversification of key supply chains away from China.

Referring to China's repeated rejections of Taiwanese fruit imports in recent years because they purportedly did not meet pesticide restrictions, Tsai said Taiwan's trade in goods with China is already significantly under China's control.

If a deal on service trade had been passed at that time, Taiwan would have seen a decline in job opportunities and control of e-commerce or electronic information by China, she argued.

In other words, rejecting the trade-in-service agreement not only stopped a radical trade proposal but also reflected the way Taiwanese people hoped to lead their lives, Tsai contended.