On my way to find something new for dinner, I encountered yet another protest in Taipei. This is again related to the China-Taiwan cross-straits trade deal. If we count the anti-nuclear protest during my second week here, this would be the fourth the protest I’ve witnessed.
Unlike the previous protests, this one seemed less organized, unless you count the police. The crowd obstructed the major intersection at Shandao Temple Station toward the end of rush hour. This area is not far from Executive Yuan and other government buildings, but those buildings are still blocked off by plenty of temporary barbed wire barricades. This time around, I noticed the police using a small surveillance drone to monitor the situation. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a clear picture of it.
I came across the protest at close to 7 pm, and it looked like a couple hundred people in the streets. Traffic seemed to avoid the intersection except for a few angry motorists who turned around. After about 15 minutes, more traffic approached the intersection–it seemed that the police stopped telling drivers to go around. At this point, it was mostly motorbikes that decided to push through the crowd, angering the protesters–there were a few shouting matches. Finally, the crowd thinned out and moved down the street.
