Twin revolutions: Ukraine’s Maidan and Taiwan’s Sunflower
A decade after pro-democracy protests in Kyiv and Taipei, we look at the Sunflower movement through the eyes of Johnny Wu, who demonstrated in his home country, then later traveled to Ukraine...
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Taiwan and Ukraine won’t make a list of the world’s most similar countries.
But a decade ago, a demand for freedom and protest against authoritarianism united these two disparate places. At around the same time, two groups of people rose up to protect similar values against similar enemies, launching twin revolutions.
“The Sunflower Movement was a trigger to me,” said Taiwanese activist Johnny Wu. “It’s like a seed planted in my mind.”
The sunflower seed grew over time. A few years later, Johnny embarked on a journey to Ukraine, a country covered with sunflowers. There, he discovered a parallel universe of Taiwan – and is one of the few people on earth to immerse himself, in some way, in both revolutions.
In 2014, thousands of Ukrainians occupied Independence Square, or Maidan Nezalezhnosti, to fight against Russian influence, corruption and police brutality: the Revolution of Dignity. Almost five thousand miles away, a group of people in Taipei shared a similar passion for democracy, in a protest that would be dubbed the Sunflower Movement.
People in both countries saw the similarities between them, with some in Ukraine showing their support for Taiwan’s democracy in this video.
‘Ukraine supports Taiwan in 20 languages,’ with Chinese translation, from 2014:
The twin revolutions in Taiwan and Ukraine demanded that their governments listen to their demands to move closer to the West, as opposed to their authoritarian neighbors. Both countries also share common languages and cultures with their adversaries, but are eager to pursue distinct identities.
On March 18th, 2014, hundreds of young Taiwanese stormed into the Legislative Yuan – Taiwan’s version of Congress – to stop the ruling Kuomintang party from passing a trade agreement with China.
The agreement would have waived most rights of the Taiwanese entrepreneurs doing business with China, and become a big threat to Taiwanese commerce. To make matters worse, the Kuomintang planned to pass the bill without going through the typical voting process.
“If you have some basic knowledge about the law, you’d know the bill is B.S.,” Johnny said.
With his law research background, Johnny started questioning China in many different areas. In the beginning, the Sunflower movement was about fighting an unlawful legislative process that protesters believed threatened democracy. Ultimately it hinged on the serious question that the public had neglected for decades, “is China our friend or foe?”
The CCP has long declared that Taiwan is part of China, and promotes this ideology to the Taiwanese via media, business, and cultural influence. It worked fine, until the Sunflower movement.
Like many Taiwanese millennials, Johnny’s parents came with the Kuomintang to Taiwan after the Chinese nationalists lost the war with the CCP in 1949.
“Everything about the Sunflower Movement was against what my family believes in,” Johnny said.
Johnny’s family doesn’t agree with him that China is a threat. Quite the opposite, “They think China could bring prosperity to Taiwan and we should do business with them. I doubted that,” said Johnny. He was an exchange student in Shanghai, but never felt the same about China as his father does.
According to research from Taiwan NCCU (National Chengchi University), only about 20 percent of people identified as Taiwanese, instead of Chinese, in 1994. But this figure has been growing steadily since. After the Sunflower Movement, it jumped to a record high, hitting 60 percent in 2014. It remains at 61% in 2023.
However, for people who grew up in families like Johnny's, the Sunflower Movement caused lots of disagreements, as they thought differently than their older relatives. 56% of the protesters in the Sunflower Movement were students between the ages of 20-29 years old, according to a Streetcorner Sociology poll in 2014.
“My father always tells me how great China is, he’s leaning to the red side,” Johnny explaining, using the color ‘red’ as shorthand for the Chinese Communist Party.
After numerous but fruitless arguments with the family, Johnny decided to move away from his family and travel around the world, to find answers to all his confusion from these years.
Most people would go to the nearest city for a break. But not Johnny. “I wanted to explore places that most people don’t go,” Johnny said. “East Europe isn’t popular for Taiwanese tourists and I wonder why. It’s a lot cheaper than most tourist places in Europe.”
Eventually, his journey led Johnny to Kyiv, Ukraine. “I wanted to stay, and Ukraine was the cheapest option to study in East Europe.” Johnny giggled. The spontaneous decision changed the course of his life forever.
Johnny studied Russian at Kyiv National Linguistic University between 2018 and 2019. He remembers one of his professors in the class bragging about living in Soviet times.
“They did well. Everyone had a job. They made the society more stable. It was better than Capitalism,” he recalls the professor saying.
“Those words are the same as my father has always said about China,” Johnny told the Counteroffensive — while wearing a necklace representing Ukraine wrapped with blue and yellow cotton rope.
COVID stopped Johnny’s journey, but it didn’t stop his motivation to inspire people after he went home. He started hosting the podcast show ‘Let’s Talk about Ukraine’ in 2021. “There was so little information about Ukraine. But I think it's important for Taiwanese to learn about Ukraine because we may end up the same way.”
Other links between Ukraine and Taiwan remain strong. Mariia Makarovych from the Liberal Democratic League of Ukraine was invited to give a speech for the tenth anniversary of the Sunflower Movement. Attendees gathered near the main road where the protest movement had started in Taipei.
Like most Ukrainian families, Mariia from Bakhmut has loved ones fighting at the front line.
“Ukraine and Taiwan were fighting the same enemies who tried to take away democracy ten years ago,” said Mariia in the chilly breeze. “We are facing the same sick and bloodthirsty neighbors. That's why I support Taiwan.”
The Sunflower Movement stopped the Chinese trading bill from passing, but today some of the opposition parties want to restore talks raising the possibility of passing it 10 years later, emphasizing “a strong monitoring condition”.
As someone from a country bullied by Russia, Mariia thinks the law should not be passed. “It is necessary to understand that business cooperation can’t work with the countries that don’t recognize our existence as usual.”
“The future of Taiwan will be decided by only Taiwanese,” said Lin Fei-Fan, a familiar face who called the crowds to join the Sunflower Movement ten years ago, ultimately gathering 500,000 people in front of the presidential hall on March 30th, 2014.
There are differences between the two nations. Perhaps because they share a border with the enemy, the Ukrainians have suffered worse than the Taiwanese.
In Maidan, more than 100 civilians were killed, compared to zero deaths during the Sunflower Movement. Some feel that while Ukrainians have fought for their democracy, those in Taiwan have sometimes lost sight of the importance of the struggle for representation.
One thing is clear: complacency in the face of authoritarianism will only end badly.
NEWS OF THE DAY:
U.S. STATES PLAN FOR TAIWAN WAR: Legislators in Arizona, Nebraska and Illinois have passed bills that force their governments to stress test what would happen if China invaded Taiwan, reports Politico. Arizona's version requires the state government to come up with strategies to reduce harm to the state in the case of that outcome.
CHINA DEPLOYS JETS, VESSELS AROUND TAIWAN: The Taiwanese defense ministry warned on Wednesday that China had deployed 20 fighters and eight naval vessels around Taiwan; 14 fighter jets crossed the median line separating China and Taiwan.
AMID CHINA THREAT, TAIWAN COMMISSIONS NEW NAVY SHIPS: The Taiwanese Navy launched two new corvettes this week – relatively small ships that carry about 41 personnel. The vessels are meant to be quick and highly maneuverable.
MAJORITY OF TAIWAN DOES NOT THINK WAR IMMINENT: Most respondents polled disagreed with their own defense minister, who said he could not "sleep well at night" and is concerned about an unintentional start of war. Only 37.1 percent said that they agreed with the defense minister's concerns.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK:
Hi, it’s Elaine here. I want to show you about the Sunflower movement I experienced 10 years ago.
On March 18th, 2014, I saw a friend’s post on Facebook saying she was in the Legislative Yuan.
I didn’t understand what was going on but all the information about a protest started flowing into Facebook. I realized that she was with the movement organizers. I’d read about the movement late at night, and the next day after work, I went there to show my support immediately.
A florist sent lots of flowers including some sunflowers to the Legislative Yuan in the first week of the occupation to show support. One of the organizers accidentally left the sunflowers on the podium. The media got a picture of it while the organizers were giving the speech, and they started calling it the Sunflower Movement, a happy accident of history.
Facebook was popular in Taiwan at the time. However, there was also another, more powerful, social media: “PTT”, mostly used by college students, essentially like a Taiwanese Reddit. Many supporters shared information about the condition of the people inside the Legislative Yuan and told people what resources they needed such as food or supplies. Once a roast chicken was delivered to the organizers.
Now, ten years on, I saw many organizations that were involved with the movement back then showing up again at the anniversary event — such as the Green Citizens' Action Alliance, the Taiwan Independence Group, and Citizen Congress Watch. The Sunflower Movement was founded to fight against unjust voting procedures, but it was more than that.
I also saw a message board at the anniversary where people wrote about their hopes for the country of Taiwan, and complaints about one specific congressman, who was the main organizer of the Sunflower Movement but this year joined TPP — the opposing party, who supports more friendly relations with Beijing.
And of course, our beloved Winnie the Pooh wearing a Kuomingtang shirt.
In Taiwan, young people tend to believe that the look of Winnie the Pooh shares some feature similarities with President Xi, making Winnie the Pooh become a popular mascot. It went viral a few years ago forcing Christopher Robin, a movie about the story of Winnie the Pooh, banned in China ultimately.
Looking back on the movement 10 years after, it has formed Taiwan moving to a different path away from China. It was a wake-up call for the millennials who were born with voting rights. We could have never imagined that our democracy could be taken away just like that. It was the strongest solidarity I’ve seen in Taiwan.
“It was the right thing to stop the trading agreement with China,” said Lin, Fei-Fan. I’m glad I was involved with the history helping to do the right thing.
Today’s Dog of Peace is this pup I saw at the 10th anniversary of the Sunflower Movement. She’s wearing a strip of cloth written in “Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times”. According to the Taiwan Ministry of the Interior, 46,000 Hong Kong immigrants have moved to Taiwan from 2018-2023.
Stay safe out there.
Best,
Elaine
I took part in the march for Ukraine in Montreal last month and there were Taiwanese marchers along side us. I was very touched.
🌻 So lovely that the 🌞🌻 connects these fierce protectors of freedom & democracy - may they keep both dreams alive & prevail. Inspirational to see how seemingly different peoples connect & support each other 💙💛❤️💙🤍