Taiwan: Protests held to raise concerns around legislative reforms, Hong Kong and Palestine

The state of civic space in Taiwan is rated as ‘open’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. This means the state has created an enabling environment for people to enjoy their civic freedoms. Civil society is able to operate and undertake their work without harassment or undue interference. People are free to hold protests in public places and form associations. There is also a relatively free media, and journalists are able to do their work without any major restrictions.

Human rights groups including The Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) and Amnesty International Taiwan have called on the government to establish an asylum system and asylum law protecting refugees and asylum seekers. The Cabinet had listed establishing an asylum law by 2024 in its National Human Rights Action Plan in 2022. The groups pointed out that the current process of obtaining a provisional alien registration certificate via Taiwan’s Immigration Agency does not sufficiently protect applicants’ rights and no one has been approved for a provisional alien registration certificate so far.

In recent months, protests were held against legislative reform bills proposed by the opposition and in support of democracy in Hong Kong as well as on the genocide in Palestine. There were also calls for more media reforms.

Peaceful Assembly

Protests over legislative reform bills

In June 2024, there were reports of further protests over legislative reform bills outside the Legislative Yuan (parliament) in Taipei and across the country, including in New Taipei City, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County. The protest was organised by the the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and the Taiwan Citizen Front.

Protesters have dubbed the movement the “Bluebird Action” — named after the road next to the Legislative Yuan where they gathered while the bills were being passed. In Taipei, on 20th June 2024, several hundred people began to convene, listening to talks by rights advocates and lectures by academics. On 21st June, event organisers said that more than 30,000 people had joined the protest.

As previously documented, in May 2024, two opposition parties, the pro-China Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), proposed amendments to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power and the Criminal Code that they say would ensure checks and balances and give the legislature more power to target corruption.

The laws require the president to report to the legislature and give a state of the nation address, as well as to respond to a question-and-answer session from lawmakers. The laws also aim to grant new prosecutorial powers to the legislature, allowing legislators to summon government officials or members of organisations for questioning by investigatory committees. It would also hand the legislature increased control of budgets, including defence spending.

The ruling Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, said the reforms would undermine Taiwan’s democracy because the laws may constitute an overreach of power.

The proposal led to mass protests in May 2024, but the bills were eventually passed on 28th May 2024. However, in June 2024, President William Lai signed the Executive Yuan’s request to send the bills back to the legislature for reconsideration.

Hundreds take to the streets to support Hong Kong on protest anniversary

Around 600 people took to the streets in Taipei on 9th June 2024 to show solidarity with Hong Kong, as it marked the fifth anniversary of the city's mass protests against legal revisions to allow extraditions to mainland China.

Focus Taiwan reported that protesters held placards with slogans such as "Fight for Democracy" and "HK & TW Stand Together". The participants - mainly Hong Kongers and Taiwanese - joined the event organised by Taiwan-based exile group Hong Kong Outlanders and other civic groups.

Participants marched from Liberty Square to Nishi Honganji Square, chanting slogans to support Hong Kong in Cantonese, Mandarin and English. After arriving at their destination, they stayed for a rally during which human rights advocates from Taiwan and Hong Kong gave short speeches calling for continued attention to the situation in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Outlanders Secretary-General Sky Fung said that over the past five years, the level of attention to Hong Kong has been very high in Taiwan compared to other parts of the world, hoping that Taiwan's government can further improve its policies related to Hong Kong and Hong Kongers in Taiwan, especially an asylum-like special immigration scheme for Hong Kong activists who fled to Taiwan after the movement which was introduced in 2020.

Marches in support of Palestine

Marches were also held in Taiwan in support of the people of Palestine and against the genocide being committed by Israel security forces in Gaza.

In June 2024, several hundred rallied in support of Palestine, according to a report by New Bloom. The protest march began at Liberty Plaza, with several speeches held despite the rain. Then two speaker trucks guided the crowd through the city. One was for speeches and the other played electronic music. The rally stopped next to the legislature and Control Yuan where there were speeches from Hazem Almassry, a Palestinian academic based in Taiwan. Other speakers included representatives of progressive third parties, such as the Taiwan Obasan Alliance, as well as left pro-Chinese unification groups such as the Left Party, Labor Party, and People’s Democratic Party.

On 7th October 2024, another march took place in Taipei to mark the one-year anniversary of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Both members of the international community and local Taiwanese participated. The demonstration began at 1 PM at the Nishi Honganji Remains, a park in western Taipei, with speeches before the march took place.

Expression

Reporters Without Borders calls for media reforms

In October 2024, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) director-general Thibaut Bruttin praised Taiwan’s free media but added that work was still needed to encourage more editorial independence in local newsrooms.

Bruttin lauded Taiwan as a “role model” for press freedom in Asia and said he hoped that it would continue to “build up its model” and “show the way to other countries in the region.” In the 2024 World Press Freedom Index released by RSF in May 2024, Taiwan moved up eight positions from last year to 27th in the rankings out of 180 countries and regions.

At the same time, Bruttin called for media reforms to address the lack of editorial independence in newsrooms, which he said had undermined the media’s credibility. He said that Taiwan must work on preventing its journalism industry from being “weaponised” against democracy,

RSF also called on the government to increase funding for public media, adopt a “coregulation” mechanism to encourage editorial independence and provide incentives to media outlets committed to respecting journalistic ethics, among other measures.