Q&A: Taiwan whistleblower Rex How on the challenge of generational change | Politics News [Video]

Taipei, Taiwan – Eleven years ago, Rex How, writer, publisher, translator, editor, and then-cultural adviser to the Kuomintang (KMT) government of President Ma Ying-jeou, made a decision that would change the direction of his own life, and the future of Taiwan.

On June 20, 2013, How posted a letter on social media alerting the Taiwan public to the planned closed-door signing of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement (CSSTA), a free trade deal that would open up Taiwan’s service industry – which represents about 70 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) – to Chinese investment.

As the details of the agreement became clear, many in Taiwan’s civil society warned that the deal would advance economic absorption by China and compromise the island’s political sovereignty.

How later resigned and supported student activists nine months later after the bill was rushed through the legislative review process by Ma’s China-friendly KMT. That student movement became what is now known in Taiwan as the …