Nearly two weeks ago after China passed its anti-secession law, Taiwan called on its population to protest en masse today. It is being called the 326 protest, and it hoping to pull over one million people. It is early in Taiwan right now, but over the past week, people have already started voicing out their discontent with China. One sign of this were 400 cab drivers lining up in an aerial view that spells “peace”.

Some 400 drivers line up their taxis to form the word ???????peace??????? during a protest denouncing Beijing????????s recent approving an anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan Tuesday, March 22, 2005, in Taipei, Taiwan. The protest leads up to Saturday????????s planned protest to gather one million Taiwanese to show public disapproval to the anti-secession law that give China legal means to halt any form of Taiwan independence including military attack. (AP Photo Ran You-shun)

The protests today will be something incredible altogether. Taiwan is known for its ability to organize rallies. Here is a good article that leads into the whole event.

Taiwan plans to vent its anger with China this weekend with a massive street protest against a new Chinese law that authorises military action if the democratic island seeks formal independence.

Organisers predict more than 1 million people will gather on Saturday across the capital, Taipei. Rivers of protesters will converge on a wide boulevard in the city????????s centre.

???????People power is our best weapon and our best guarantee,??????? President Chen Shui-bian said as he urged people to protest. ???????The more we unite to safeguard our own interests, the more the world would be willing to help us.???????

In Beijing, censors blacked out part of a report on the Taiwan protest by CNN, which is broadcast in China to hotels and apartment complexes for foreigners.
…
Many of Taiwan????????s 23 million people view the anti-secession law as a threat to their freedom to decide their own future.

???????Some of us see ourselves as Taiwanese, others as Chinese,??????? said sociologist Wu Nei-teh. ???????Whatever choice we make, it must be done with our free will. No political power can … coerce us into accepting certain arrangements.???????

Chen said today that he would take part in the protest with his family to condemn China????????s military threat, but would not lead the march nor deliver any speeches.

Alluding to American singer Bob Dylan????????s Blowing in the Wind, Chen asked: ???????How much longer must China continue its sabre-rattling and intimidating words before they can wake up and walk toward peace????????

???????The great Taiwanese people, the answer will float in the wind of March 26.???????

Taiwan is certainly known for being able to stage huge rallies. Here is an article detailing how it is being organized.

Taipei, March 25 (CNA) With more than one million people expected to turn out in Taiwan for Saturday’s protest against China’s Anti-Secession Law, organizers are taking pains Friday to ensure the event is a success. The Taiwan Democratic Alliance for Peace, which is organizing the protest, is an umbrella group consists of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union and others. It said Friday that more than 5,000 tour buses will pull into Taipei from around the island Saturday, raising the possibility of traffic jams and parking problems. The buses will drop off their passengers at 30 different locations around the city, and then drive to parking lots near the square in front of the Presidential Office where the marchers will eventually meet up. In order to minimize air pollution, the city’s environmental protection officials asked the drivers Friday not to keep their buses running while they are parked. The protesters will march toward the square in front of the Presidential Office following 10 different routes. The routes have a combined length of more than 40 kilometers. In order to monitor the speed of the marchers, each route will be led by a car equipped with a global positioning system. President Chen Shui-bian and his family will join the march at some point, ensuring that security details will have their hands full. News reports Friday said that seven security officials were disciplined for allowing the president and vice president to be shot last year the day before the presidential election. Punishments were said to have been meted out to the former National Security Bureau chief and the president’s former aide-de-camp, among others. Adding to the security headache is the fact that many other high-ranking government officials will also march Saturday, from Premier Frank Hsieh on down. With so many routes and so many people involved, officials say that keeping the high-profile marchers safe will be a challenge, even for experienced security officials. To keep things running smoothly, the organizers have recruited an army of volunteers to help ensure that everything proceeds in a peaceful manner. Sixteen supply stations will be set up along the 10 routes to provide protestors with bottled water, small flags, and badges. Twenty thousand bottles of water have been ordered by the organizers — one bottle for every five people expected to march. The organizer will also have 1,500 mobile toilets for the expected one million protesters, or one toilet for every 666 persons. Instead of listening to politicians’ speeches as in the past, the protesters will sing several songs at the square in front of the Presidential Office, and break up at about 5 p.m. How a million people will disperse without gridlock is something that organizers say will work itself out. Organizers will have big posters pointing the way to tour buses, and they said that they hoped that the last protesters will leave the square for home an hour and a half after the end of the march.

Apparently, they aren’t particularly fond of paragraphs in Taiwan. Nonetheless, it is right that the high-profile government officials will be joining in with the people. The kind of sing-song atmosphere is the same that appeared in the Orange Revolution, and the reason so many of us in the blogosphere are wholeheartedly embracing people power as a peaceful means of civil disobedience.

As I’m typing this right now actually, hundreds of thousands of people are currently marching in Taipei and President Chen has just joined in the march.

Taipei, March 26 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian joined hundreds of thousands of people in a huge demonstration Saturday in the capital city against China’s Anti-Secession Law, which authorizes the use of force against Taiwan in certain circumstances. Escorted by security officers, the president and the first family showed up at around 3 p.m. at one of the 10 routes heading toward the boulevard in the front of the Presidential Office. An estimated one million participants of the 326 March for Democracy and Peace set off from 10 different places in Taipei at around 2:30 p.m. and are expected to reach the boulevard at 4:30 p.m. for a large rally. The president is not going to give a speech at the rally but will lead a ceremony declaring Taiwan’s aspirations for “democracy, peace and security” and lead protesters in singing songs before the rally is dismissed. Four songs representing the four main ethnic groups in Taiwan and the U.S. civil rights movement key anthem, “We Shall Overcome, ” will be sung. In addition to President Chen, his predecessor, Lee Teng-hui, and Premier Frank Hsieh also participated in the march. Vice President Annette Lu will only take part in the assembly in front of the Presidential Office.

These Taiwanese leaders all sound very hip. It is being noted that this rally is more a cultural one than a political one. In a sense, this is true. Many types of people will be demonstrating in this rally, but the reason they are all there is to express solidarity with one another and leave with the sense of being Taiwanese. There are already some photos on the Yahoo news directory so I’ll post some here. Remember, green is the color!

This headband reads “Peace, Democracy.”

Over a million people have amassed right now!

What amazes me is the fiery spirit of protest in the lawmakers there. See the following two photos, all of them Taiwanese lawmakers.

President Chen knows how to party!

Now he’s leading the concert with song!

PROTEST BABES SIGHTED!

About 800 people rallied in Los Angeles, and Bruce Chang has info on rallies around the U.S. Here is another report for what took place in Washington D.C. Japan too.

Currently, there is some argument over the current number of protestors out there.

March 26 (Bloomberg) — Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian joined hundreds of thousands of protesters who marched in Taipei to denounce a Chinese law that authorizes attacking the island if it declares independence.

The turnout today exceeded 800,000, the United Evening News estimated. Police spokesman Tan Szu-huai put the figure at about 300,000.

Crowd counts are always both overblown and underestimated, though I think the police count is far too low. There are many people still trying to get to the protests due to traffic jams. The Associated Press is reporting “about a million.”

My favorite phrase thusfar has been “democratic carnival,” with all the details!

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of people chanting “Oppose war, Love Taiwan” joined a “democratic carnival” in Taipei on Saturday to protest against China’s military threat.

“I am here to protest against a barbaric China who looks down upon the Taiwanese people,” said 70-year-old businessman Fan Wen-yi, adding he was not affiliated to any political party and had never participated in a protest before.

“The anti-secession law, simply put, is a law that authorises war. If they really see Taiwan people as their compatriots, why do they enact such a law?”

Many protestors brought their children and pets to the “democratic carnival”, which featured 10 different themes, such as anti-aggression and protecting Taiwan.

Scores of children took part in a “naked kiddie butt” event, where they bared bottoms plastered with anti-missile stickers.

The protestors chanted slogans and waved green flags that read “democracy, peace, protest Taiwan” as they marched towards the presidential office from 10 locations around the capital.

President Chen and his family also joined the marchers.

“China has never ruled Taiwan, not even for one day, yet they treat us as part of their territory,” Huang Ming-yu, who took his wife and 2-year-old daughter to join the rally after a nearly 10-hour bus ride from the southern county of Pingtung.

“China is so rude and unreasonable.”

Indeed they are! But don’t expect this to reach the mainland. As it was noted much further up, China is already censoring this news. Many people may never even know this happened and China will continue to shake a stick at Taiwan as if nothing is happening. But you can bet that the Chinese leadership is pissed! Here is something dumb I read:

China’s People’s National Congress passed the anti-secession law on March 14. Chen denounced it at the time as a menace to the region and a further sign of China’s rising militarism. His pro- democracy views have strained relations with China, which is anxious for the island to reintegrate under a formula similar to the ééone-country, two-systems” policy that brought Hong Kong back to the mainland in 1997.

On the other hand, perhaps it is communist China’s blatant oppression of its own people that is straining relations with Taiwan? Who the heck would want to be part of a country like that?

UPDATE: Here’s something cool to check out, a full sized panorama.