[scotttsai]

The protesters are made up of three overlapping groups:

1. Those who resent the way the ruling party reneged on its promise of legislative review and forced a this trade services pact with China through.

2. Those who have economic concerns, e.g. they worry that Taiwanese small and medium sized businesses would be acquired by Chinese capital thus massively raising the barrier to entry in some industries. Another worry is that Taiwan may face a massive brain drain to China.

3. Those who have national security concerns because the trade services pact opens for e.g. some parts of the telecommunications and publishing industries. China claims Taiwan as a renegade province and has said it'd use force to unify the motherland if necessary.

So far this is still a Taiwanese domestic issue though with the U.S. and China watching closely. One WSJ report goes[1]:

"U.S. officials might consider all this as they prepare to resume bilateral trade talks with Taiwan next week. Advancing bilateral trade—and encouraging eventual Taiwanese accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership—would help quiet nerves on all sides of Taiwanese politics. The U.S. has largely ignored Taiwan in recent years, but Taipei's current crisis highlights the extent to which trouble still lurks in that corner of Asia."

[1]:http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230441840...

[cclogg]

My girlfriend (who is Taiwanese) and happened to be visiting home during this time, went to observe the protests during the first week. From what she told me (going off memory here), there's many people going to the protests for 2 hours just so they can mark on their Facebook wall that they were there... and many others who don't actually care nor understand, but just follow the vocal protestors. However, there are indeed those who care, as marked by your 3 different groups.

P.s. she also said the police were not a problem for her. The ones they were dealing with were generally trouble-makers and basically out of control or whatever.

Oh well, I hope Taiwan can sort this out, it's a great country :)

[briantakita]

I would be scared of annexation if I were a Taiwanese citizen. Heavy-handed states (including China) have not been kind to dissenters.

[dhughes]

Taiwan may get "Putin-ed", step 1 cause citizen outrage, step 2 citizens revolt against their corrupt government step 3 China moves in to help stabilize the country without a government.

[guard-of-terra]

There is another scenario: 1 cause citizen outrage, step 2 government successfully ignores outrage/beats protesters/tells lies to general public step 3 you're Putin-ed still.