Taiwan leader offers talks with students amid continuing protest
Global Times - AFP | 2014-3-26 1:48:01
Taiwan's leader on Tuesday offered to talk with protest leaders in a concession to student demonstrators who have occupied the "Legislative Yuan" in Taipei for the past week in protest against a cross-Straits service and trade agreement.
"As the continued paralyzing of the 'Legislative Yuan' has impacted its operation, Mr Ma Ying-jeou is willing to invite student leaders to the 'presidential office' to discuss the service trade agreement ... so as to help the 'Legislative Yuan' resume operation," Ma's spokeswoman Li Jia-fei said.
The students agreed to attend the talks later on Tuesday, but they wanted it to be held in public with the presence of all protesters, reported Hong Kong-based news portal on.cc.
More than 100 people were injured Monday when police used water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters, who had also stormed the "Executive Yuan." Students have occupied the "Legislative Yuan" since March 18.
The deal is designed to open up trade in services between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
The protesters have demanded a rejection of the pact amid the ruling Kuomintang's (KMT) efforts to ratify it.
Ma has previously said at a press conference that the failure to ratify the pact would be a grave setback to trade-reliant Taiwan's efforts to seek more free trade agreements and avoid isolation as regional economic blocs emerge.
Lü Cuncheng, a Taiwan studies scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that Ma has sent out signs of willingness to end the occupation peacefully by offering talks with students and it would also help promote future passage of the agreement.
"The KMT has conceded to conduct a line-by-line review and vote, in line with student demands. The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should also make some concessions," Lü said.
Full rejection would damage Taiwan's credibility and the supervision mechanism before reviews proposed by the DPP appears more like a tactic to delay the review and vote on the agreement, he noted.