Previously in May, we reported on the large pro-democracy street protests in Taipei, Taiwan in opposition to new legislative reform bills being hastily pushed through the Legislative Yuan or parliament by the China-friendly Kuomintang Party or KMT and their smaller ally the Taiwan People’s Party or TPP.
The KMT-TPP combined majority was enough to carry the bills through parliament in May and onto the next step of review by the Executive Yuan or Cabinet. On the week of June 17th, the Executive Yuan vetoed the legislation sending it back to the Legislature for reconsideration.
As a result, the public protests which have become known as the Bluebird Movement returned to the streets around the parliament and on June 19th we went there to find out more. In this episode we talk to Chen Fang-Yu who is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Soochow University in Taiwan. He told us why the protests have returned and about additional bills being proposed by the KMT that are causing concern.
