Is the Pro-Trump Capitol Riot Like the Sunflower Movement?

On the afternoon of January 6th around 2pm EST, supporters of President Trump, including the well-known far-right group Proud Boys, broke through police barricades and stormed the US Capitol building to block the official electoral process that would award the Presidency to US president-elect Joe Biden.

Footage of the scene brings memories of the Sunflower Movement and the occupation of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan in 2014, but hastily equating the two would be unfair and misleading. Although the tactics used by the violent protesters today resemble the tactics used by Sunflower activists in 2014 – using social media to assemble, building a coalition between several ideological groups, and storming into the legislative building at the nation’s capital to make a statement – there is little in common between the two.

Whereas those who broke into Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan on March 18, 2014 consisted mostly of young, unarmed students, today’s incident in Washington D.C. included rioters who were armed, with some “using ‘chemical irritants’ against the police to gain entry,” according to Capitol Police.

In 2014, the civil society of Taiwan, through activist organizations, mounted a protest of the sitting president and his policies by their own volition. Today’s unrest was instigated by the sitting US president himself to attack another branch of the American government, against the highest elected representatives, half of whom are from his own party.

Trump may benefit Taiwan, but a detriment to democratic values

Many people in Taiwan have become fans of President Trump because his administration has shattered long-standing US policies that were restrictive of Taiwan or overly lenient towards China. But those of us who support Taiwan’s democracy must realize that Trump’s rhetoric today, and throughout his presidency, are a threat to American democracy, and by extension, every other democracy that relies on the US.

If it becomes acceptable for the current US president to call on his supporters to maintain his power via violence, imagine the next time a politician in Taiwan, or anywhere, calls upon his or her supporters to shut down government functions and subvert the rule of law. “It’s ok in America!”

Taiwan’s anxiety with a change in power is understandable. But it should not lead to rationalizing one man’s behavior, or supporting those who sow doubt in the underlying American democratic system. Taiwanese politicians, journalists, and political commentators should remember that Taiwan’s fate does not lie with a single political party or a single president, whether in Taiwan or in America.

Taiwan’s democracy, in particular, had moved past the violence and assassination attempts, election fraud, national recounts and election-related protests and riots. People of Taiwan should, informed by history, see that the acts happening today are not a move forward, but rather a move backward, for America’s democracy.

(Feature photo by Andy Feliciotti on Unsplash)