Protests Rage In Taiwan Over China Trade DealBrandon Turbeville Those destabilization campaigns, all initiated with violence from the beginning, yet portrayed as peaceful democracy-loving protesters by the Western media, were paraded in front of millions of American television screens night after night for the purpose of propagandizing a frighteningly gullible public at home who themselves have a natural inclination toward supporting the underdog in any given fight (unless that underdog is the overt target of the United States). Still, while these protests were ever-present on American television screens, there was a stunning lack of air time devoted to the protests taking place in Thailand, a rare example of organic mass mobilization of everyday people disgusted with the incompetence and oppression of their ruling regime. As is the case in Thailand, there remains a stunning lack of 24-hour coverage of the protests taking place in Taiwan, where a movement of activists, mainly young people, have taken to the streets in protest of a new trade agreement being negotiated between Taiwan and China. The new agreement is centered around the greater integration of the economies of two states that have been antagonistic towards one another to say the least for many years. The deal, which was reached last June, focuses on removing barriers to cross-strait trade in services such as banking, e-commerce and health care. The protesters, along with some opposition parties, claim that the trade deal will lead to an influx of Chinese businesses that will overwhelm Taiwanese competitors, threaten basic freedoms in areas such as publishing, and employ cheap mainland labour rather than Taiwanese. President Ma has told reporters that Taiwans Parliament should approve the trade agreement so that Taiwans economy will not suffer in the future, echoing the fear-mongering statements of free trade promoters in the West who made similar claims that the United States would be left behind if it did not accept NAFTA and other free trade agreements. Time, of course, has shown that getting left behind when it comes to free trade and globalism is a blessing. As Hsiao-Hung Pai writes for the Guardian, For this reason, those in Taiwan who are rightly opposed to the China-Taiwan trade agreement have organized street demonstrations and have even occupied government buildings, including Parliament, on several occasions over the past few weeks. In fact, over 20,000 people have taken part in the protests and the storming and occupying of government buildings, with 100 people being injured on Sunday when the government headquarters was stormed and a crackdown by police subsequently followed. The demands of the protesters, both students and workers, are essentially that the trade deal be abandoned or that, at the very least, it be returned to the cabinet and a national citizens conference called. Of course, with the recent spate of Western-backed destablizations having taken place across the world, it is both justified and important to wonder if the West does not have its hands in the Taiwanese movement, now known as the Sunflower Movement. While there is no direct evidence to connect the protest movement with NGOs, Foundations, or agencies of the U.S. government as of yet, it must be mentioned that the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), both subsidiaries of the National Endowment for Democracy and hence, USAID, are indeed involved in the affairs of Taiwan. All of these organizations, of course, are notorious agents of destabilization. Indeed, it was reported by Taiwan Today that, on June 26, 2013, Taiwanese President Ma met with a visiting delegation of the NDI and IRI at the Presidential office in Tapei city. The delegation consisted of Constance Newman, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Alison Fortier, a member of the IRI Board of Directors, and Robin Carnahan and Sam Gejdenson, members of the Board of Directors of the NDI. The conversations apparently focused on the cross-strait relations with China and the improvement of relations between the two governments. For now, the United States is taking a neutral stance officially, but has stated that it supports the efforts of both sides to reduce tensions and improve relations between Taipei and Beijing. Regardless of the individual players involved, organizational or otherwise, the China-Taiwan agreement is yet one more step in the ever-increasing race to implement a totally global economy. The constant push toward integration and harmonization is a movement that will not stop until every country in the world is brought together under the concept of interdependence and the world banking structure. It is high time that such a movement sparks protests not only in Taiwan but the entire world. Recently by Brandon Turbeville: Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelors Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies,Five Sense Solutionsand Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, and The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria.Turbeville has published over 300 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbevilles podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. 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