Check out our official website: http://us.tomonews.net/<br />Check out our Android app: http://goo.gl/PtT6VD<br />Check out our iOS app: http://bit.ly/1gO3z1f<br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />Taiwan's sunflower protest finally came to an end yesterday when student protesters vacated Taiwan's parliament.<br /><br />The Sunflower movement started on March 18 when the hundreds of students occupied the legislature to protest against the government's proposed trade deal with China that was handled un-transparently. <br /><br />The standoff between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the protesters lasted an unprecedented period of 24 days, the longest of Taiwan's history of social movements. <br /><br />Riot police clashed with the protesters on March 24th, which outraged Taiwanese society and led to a 500,000 person rally on Ketagalan Boulevard (凱達格蘭大道) in front of the Presidential Office on March 30th. <br /><br />The Sunflower movement raised Taiwanese awareness of the trade deal, leading to a national debate over whether the country is willing to open its market further with China. <br /><br />After Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng's (王金平) promise Sunday to enact a law regulating the trade pact before resuming the process of deliberating the cross-strait service trade pact, the protesters finally agreed to hand back parliament. <br /><br />For the past three weeks, young protesters had expressed vibrant artistic creativity and took advantage of technology to start a protest relay with other Taiwanese students in 49 cities of 17 countries. Information on the protest was even translated into a total of 35 languages, while netizens raised a whopping $220,000 USD to purchase a full-page advertisement in New York Times. <br /><br />During the last couple days of the protests, student protesters cleaned the parliament building, winning the title of the most polite civil rights movement. <br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
