Photo: Lennon Ying-Dah Wong, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 IntroductionNew Bloom MagazineSunflower Movement, March 2014 Sunflower Movement: young people occupied the parliament for 23 days, in opposition to a trade dealfirst Taiwanese presidential elections in 1996Democratic Progressive Party, DPPKuomintang, KMTChen Shui-bian, former president, corruption chargeshuge issue: unification vs. independence~10% of Taiwanese population migrated directly over from the mainland2016 elections, Taiwan under Tsai Ing-wen Tsai Ing-wen, elected president in 2016judicial reform, removing „dinosaur judges“KMT assets, might be richest party in the worldwanted to lessen Taiwan’s economic dependence on ChinaNew Southbound Policylow wages: 22,000 New Taiwanese Dollars as a college graduate = 607.54€ or $753.72high housing prices in TaiwanLots of Taiwanese going to China to work there for better wagesweak „strawberry generation„low birth rate, ageing population (demographic structure as of 2016)What did the Sunflower Movement do? election of Tsai Ying-wen in 2016political independent Ko Wen-je became Taipei mayorCurrent Politics of the Taiwanese Left New Power Party (NPP; Chinese: 時代力量), post sunflower movement partyLegislature: proportional representationNew Party: extreme unificationfights and brawls in the legislatureLargest party: social democratic party, quite newAlliance with the older green partyTaiwan Independence Party: mostly independenceNPP: more moderate, somewhere in betweenCooperation with the DPP in Parliament The DPP’s flag with a white cross (Wikipedia)Marriage equalityDPP: Christian element, Presbyterian church in TaiwanNPP leader under fire from anti gay activists, faced recall vote (Huang)supreme court ultimately ruled for marriage equality (although conservative)two-year deadlineMa Ying-jeou, former presidentNew Labor Law Labour reforms in 2016NPP sided with labour unions, accused of instigating anti-DPP protestsThe Liberty Times, Pan-green newspaperlabour unions: oppressed during martial law period (1949 to 1987)Labour unions have both pro and anti-independence forces, some entered KMT as officialscutting restrictions on mandatory rest time for workersless overtime payvacation days can be delayed indefinitelyoverwork-related deathsmandatory time-off between shifts reducedeconomic competitivenessdecline in manufacturing jobs, service sector prominentTaiwan has 4th longest working hours in the worldFoxconn Foxconn’s share of Taiwan’s GDP is 22%, comparable to Samsung in South KoreaSuicides at Foxconn factoriesFoxconn CEO Terry Gou as a political actorPan-blue camp: the „right“ wing in Taiwanese politicsProtests large protest in Kaohsiung, a industrial city in southern Taiwanprotests in Taipei, police violencelittle coverage on the labor protestsissue of press ownership: Mainland Chinese companies buying up Taiwanese media„powerpoint protest signs“one especially popular and widely used comic strip on the labour lawother organizations producing infographics to explain the law (and others):沃草 Watchout, 圖文不符 (simpleinfo)upcoming local elections in late 2018