Thousands in Taiwan protest China trade deal

Tsai, Gladys. "Thousands in Taiwan Protest China Trade Deal." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 29 Apr. 0000. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-taiwan-protest-china-trade-deal-124304655.html?vp=1

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the streets around Taiwan's Parliament on Sunday to voice their opposition to a trade pact with China, part of a nearly 2-week-old protest that is challenging the president's policy of moving the democratic island economically closer to China. 500,000 people had turned out in the biggest demonstration since the movement started. An Associated Press estimate put the number at more than 200,000, and a police estimate at more than 100,000. Several hundred mainly student protesters have been occupying Taiwan's legislature since March 18, supported by thousands outside the building. They are protesting President Ma Ying-jeou's intention to enact a trade deal that would allow Taiwanese and Chinese service sector companies in businesses ranging from banking to beauty parlors to open up branches or shops in the other's territory. The action was sparked by the decision by a lawmaker from Ma's ruling Nationalist Party to renege on a promised clause-by-clause review of the trade deal, which was signed by both sides last year but is awaiting ratification by Taiwan's Parliament. Opponents of the pact say it would cost Taiwan tens of thousands of jobs because small businesses on the island will be unable to compete with cash-rich, mostly state-run Chinese companies intent on investing in Taiwan. They also say it would give a big boost to China's efforts to bring the island, which split from the mainland 65 years ago, under its control.The protest is the most serious challenge to Ma's signature policy of moving Taiwan ever closer to China by tying their economies together. Since he took office in May 2008, he has superintended a drastic upsurge in the number of cross-strait flights, and pushed through more than a dozen commercial agreements with China, including a partial free trade deal that slashed tariffs on scores of items in 2010.