peaceful actions

If you still cannot fathom what exactly the Ma Administration was so afraid of during Chen Yunlin's visit, I present to you this video:


The students are yelling "和平!" and "人權!" "Hépíng" (和平) means "peace" and "rénquán" (人權) means "human rights"...the students were certainly peaceful. All of those news reports in Taiwan and the United States talking about thousands of protesters "fighting" police and "striking out" against the man are completely false, because a vast majority of the people protesting, amongst other things, Chen's visit were peaceful. However, Mr. Ma cannot seem to take criticism, another trait he shares with his dear friends, the Chinese. So, what better way to quell any opposition to the goings on behind closed doors than by dragging protesters away to remote locations and preventing them from getting their voices out there?

And, please don't talk to me about the protests being "illegal", as the Ma administration knew what they were doing by allowing the Kuomingtang and the Kuomintang only to obtain all the permits around the areas Chen Yunlin was to be at. Indeed, all of thise could have been avoided if the permit system was executed properly...but it wasn't and now government officials have a bigger problem on their hands.

We all know that Premier Liu wanted to "wait out the storm" by not acknowledging the sit-in protesters, and I'm sure he felt comfort in their dwindling but still strong numbers. But, as the Taipei Times pointed out, an expansion and rekindling of the sit-in protests is underway.