Challenging Hongkongisation: the role of Taiwan's social movements and perceptions of post-handover

On 18 March 2014, approximately 300 students stormed the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, and began occupying the building. This was done in response to legislators from the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, KMT) expediting the review process of the controversial Cross-Strait Services Trade Agreement (CCSTA) with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Many Taiwanese feared that the CSSTA, a follow up to the Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed in 2010, might be detrimental to Taiwan’s economy and sovereignty. In the days after the occupation of the Legislative Yuan, more than 10,000 Taiwanese surrounded the Yuan building in support of the students. These demonstrations were followed by student-led protests in other Taiwanese cities against the CSSTA. A remarkable characteristic of these protests was the frequent reference that protestors made to Hong Kong. The Special Administrative Region was depicted as a victim of economic integration with Beijing. Delegations from the student movements in Hong Kong paid visits to the occupying students and organised a rally in Hong Kong in support. It was the first time that people in Hong Kong and Taiwan had expressed their solidarity and strong mutual support so vocally. The economic integration of Taiwan and China has accelerated since the KMT regained power in 2008 under President Ma Ying-jeou. During this period, Taiwan’s semi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) has signed several agreements with their Beijing counterpart, the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS). These included an agreement concerning the ‘Three Direct Links’ (flights, shipping and post), the ECFA, and ten follow-up agreements. This pattern of economic integration follows that of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) signed between Mainland China and Hong Kong in 2003. Both the Taiwan ECFA and the Hong Kong CEPA frameworks provide preferred access to the Chinese market for Hong Kongese and Taiwanese