A million Taiwanese protest at China law

IN ONE of the largest demonstrations in Taiwan’s history, about one million demonstrators marched through the capital yesterday in protest at a new Chinese law that authorises an attack on the island if it moves toward formal independence.

Politician Bikhim Hsiao led the crowd in chanting: "What do we want from China? Peace."

Protester Vivian Wang, 38, a restaurant worker who travelled by bus from the southern city of Kaohsiung, said: "Taiwan is only a small island, so we must speak out really loud to make the world hear that we are a democracy facing an evil giant."

Hundreds of thousands assembled at 10 areas in Taipei, with each route representing one of the articles of the anti-secession law. The marchers converged in front of the Presidential Office building.

Beijing is concerned that self-ruled Taiwan is drifting toward independence, and China’s legislature recently passed a law codifying the use of military force against Taiwan if it seeks a permanent secession. The island, just 100 miles off China’s southern coast, has been resisting Beijing’s rule since the Communists took over the mainland in 1949.

Taiwan has been able to enjoy de facto independence for more than 50 years, largely because the US has warned it might defend the island if China attacks.

Thousands of tour buses brought protesters to Taipei from all over the island. The rally was organised by private groups, but leaders of President Chen Shui-bian’s Democratic Progressive Party played a high-profile role in the organisation.

A five-storey-high white balloon - representing peace - and an equally tall model of a red sea urchin, its needles symbolising the missiles China is pointing at Taiwan, were erected at the protest site. The sea urchin model was deflated at the end of the rally, while protesters climbed over it, trying to tear it apart.

"China is a violent country. We want nothing to do with it," said Wu Chao-hsiung, a carpenter from Taipei who attended the protest. "We have to insist on the freedom to determine our own fate."

Behind her, US and Japanese flags flew below a green protest banner. Many Taiwanese see those two countries as the island’s most likely allies in any military conflict with China.

Chen appeared at an intersection along one of the protest routes, protected by 500 plainclothes bodyguards.

The president has long been a fierce critic of Beijing’s Communist leadership and has resisted China’s increasing pressure to unify.

Chen did not speak at the rally, but mounted the stage and chanted slogans with the crowds. Critics had said that giving a speech at the event might have provoked China.