Taiwan Guo

Another small but interesting piece of evidence supporting the thesis that anti-Chen protests do not enjoy wide support across the political spectrum but are in fact mainly being attended by hardline pan-blue supporters. During Saturday's protest, Wang Liping (one of the movement's three spokespersons) referred to the 'Nation of Taiwan' (Taiwanguo)and the 'brothers and sisters of the Taiwanese nation.' This caused protests from the crowd and led to an apology by the movement's organizers from the stage. The implication, of course, is that many in the crowd are supporters of the Republic of China whose sense of Chinese identity was offended by this reference to Taiwanese nationhood. At a time when even Ma Ying-jeou has had to admit that an independent Taiwan is one of the choices before the Taiwanese people, only the deep blue side of the political spectrum still has this kind of knee-jerk reaction.

It was also noticeable at the protest on Saturday that the crowd was probably at least half mainlander and that chants using Taiwanese had to be translated and were repeated with noticeably less volume and enthusiasm.