President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Jiang Yi-huah were monitoring the protests on Sunday. Some 2,000 police officers were on duty at the site of the protests, along with another 3,000 ready to serve as backup. The military police were also prepared for additional eventualities.
The police say that if the protests continue past midnight on Sunday night, they will use a gentle approach to urge them to leave the streets.
The Cabinet has also set up a special emergency response center in the event that anything extraordinary happens in conjunction with the protests.
So far, the government has not responded to the protests.
Mainland China’s top negotiator – Chen Deming, who is the president of the semi-official Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits – spoke on Sunday about the trade in services agreement, which is at the heart of Sunday’s protests. He said that it would be regrettable if the agreement fails to pass Taiwan’s legislature. That’s because, he said, it would greatly benefit to Taiwan’s service-driven economy.