Premier Lin Chuan has withdrawn criminal charges which the previous Cabinet had filed against 126 protestors from the Sunflower Movement of 2014. The protestors had been charged with acts of vandalism stemming from a break-in at the Cabinet building.
At the heart of the protest was the last administration’s passage of a trade pact with Mainland China without a clause-by-clause review. Student and civic groups launched the Sunflower Movement in protest, saying the trade pact damaged Taiwan’s economy and sovereignty.
Cabinet spokesperson Tung Chen-yuan on Monday spoke about the decision to withdraw the charges
“As to the Sunflower Movement protestors who broke into the Cabinet building on the evening of March 23, 2014, Premier Lin Chuan has decided to withdraw criminal charges filed against 126 of them. Premier Lin emphasized that the Sunflower Movement was a political incident and not just a legal case, and that the government should handle it in a more harmonious and less confrontational manner," said Tung.
Tung also said that opposition to signing a trade pact with China has become a consensus in Taiwan. He said the legislature had acknowledged the positive contributions of the movement and introduced an act requiring greater supervision of all future agreements with China.