ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the attempt by the Ma-government to advance the rapprochement through the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement, which sought to revitalise and deepen Taiwan's neoliberal developmentalist accumulation model. As a response to this renewed push towards neoliberal reforms, Taiwan's social movements adopted a radical critique of developmentalism. This critique was founded in the immediate everyday life experience of stagnating wages, rising housing prices and the expropriation of agricultural land for the expansion of industrial parks, and served to unite struggles over land, labour and housing under a common theme. It is against this background that the Sunflower Movement erupted. While the occupation of the Legislative Yuan in March 2014 was initially marked by the demands and practice of the radical current, the analysis is concerned with the question of why both the radical critique of Taiwanese developmentalism and the nationalist critique of the China Factor moved into the background as a proceduralist perspective emphasising the democratic deficiencies of the trade deal moved to the fore. A careful analysis of the Sunflower Movement's internal struggles and its organisational aspects shows that the movement was not as homogeneous as often assumed but was instead characterised by internal struggles among various currents.
