Protesters invade Taiwan cabinet offices against pact with China

Hundreds of protesters opposed to a far-reaching trade pact with China invaded Taiwan’s Cabinet offices on Sunday, marking a sharp escalation in a student-led movement against the island’s rapidly developing ties with the communist mainland.

An Associated Press photographer outside the offices estimated the crowd at about 800. Taiwanese television stations showed scenes of protesters pushing and shoving with police in the area.

Sunday’s Cabinet action came five days after mainly student protesters occupied the nearby legislature after a ruling party lawmaker reneged on a promise to submit the pact to detailed legislative review.

Signed in June by representatives from Taipei and Beijing, the pact is still awaiting ratification by Taiwan’s legislature. It would open dozens of service sector industries in each side’s territory to companies from the other.

Since the protests began, they have attracted tens of thousands of supporters to the area around the legislature, in the sternest test so far for President Ma Ying-jeou’s six-year effort to bring Taiwan’s economy ever closer to China’s.

Earlier on Sunday, Ma said that going back on the pact would undermine Taiwan’s economy and damage its international credibility.

Student leaders rejected Ma’s contentions, insisting that tying Taiwan too close to China would harm Taiwan’s hard-won democratic freedoms and pave the way for China’s eventual takeover of the island. That has been the central goal of Beijing’s Taiwan policy since the two sides split amid civil war in 1949.