【Reported by Xin-yu Wang, Tamkang Times】On April 15th the Office of International Affairs and the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies invited former Vice President, Annette Lu Hsiu-lien for the “Tamkang University Strategic Forum- The Tough Road of Taiwanese Democracy” that attracted around 160 individuals. Annette Lu Hsiu-lien mentioned the Meili Island incident that occurred in 1979. The event had the effect of galvanizing the Taiwanese community into political actions and regarded as one of the events that eventually led to democracy in Taiwan. She made a comparison of the event to the current Sunflower movement taking place in Taiwan.

She stated, “Just because the students have left the Office of Legislative Yuan doesn’t mean this situation is over. Taiwan still needs to undergo some modifications in the country as a whole before the dream of democracy can be fully realized. Currently about ⅔ of Taiwan’s system of democracy is unacceptable. Isn’t it about time that we make some new adjustments?”

Second-year student from the Department of Spanish, Xing-yi Wu, stated, “It seems that her political experience is related to the recent problems we’ve had in Taiwan. It’s up to the new students to make a change in the system and give our ideas as contributions to our country.”