AP
Thousands of Taiwanese people, taking a page from France’s yellow vest movement, have protested on Thursday for the third time in a week to demand lower taxes and the fair handling of tax disputes.
Wearing yellow vests, they shouted slogans and blared air horns outside the Ministry of Finance in Taipei, the capital city, and waved banners calling Taiwan’s tax collection policies illegal. Some wore clear plastic raincoats over their vests in a light rain. “This is about our futures,” said Joanna Tai, a 23-year-old English language graduate student who plans to teach after graduation next year. “We look at wages in Hong Kong and mainland China. We want to know why there’s so much of a gap with Taiwan,” she said.
“Then a lot of my classmates want to start companies and be their own bosses but, because of taxes, a lot of small businesses have folded.”
The Tax & Legal Reform League, an activist group, called the protest after marshalling about 20,000 people outside the presidential office in an initial demonstration a week ago, and another 10,000 on Saturday, according to organisers and Taiwanese media.
The organisers said they were inspired by the success of the recent French protests, which turned violent and were blamed for 10 deaths.
The Taiwanese protests have been peaceful.
French President Emmanuel Macron eventually agreed to scrap a tax hike for gasoline and diesel and increase the minimum salary for full-time workers as well as other steps.
“We saw Macron and he wanted to soften up, so that gave us some encouragement to protest, so we hope the president here can hear our voices,” Reform League media liaison Wang Chih-lan said.
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