Student protester suicide deepens political row in Taiwan

About 700 students climbed barricades around the ministry and as of Friday morning about 200 students were encamped inside the ministry compound, demanding an audience with the island’s education minister, police said.

The ministry said it was not compulsory for high schools to use the new textbooks, and the changes would not be covered in university entrance exams.

Earlier, several hundred people, some holding white roses and candles, congregated outside the education ministry at midnight to bid farewell to 20-year-old Lin Kuan-hua, who police said killed himself in his New Taipei City home Thursday morning.

Protesters who stormed Taiwan’s education ministry after a student committed suicide vowed to escalate their action Friday as the government struggled to defuse the crisis sparked by “China-centric” changes to the school curriculum. Lin Kuan-hua, a top member of the protest movement, was found dead on Thursday.

Protesters much earlier toasted pics of Wu in association with items of dollars, a Chinese respect custom made, simply because they hesitated down below the careful off of a large number of monitor behind blocks.

A protester assists another as they cross a barbed wire fence outside the Education Ministry during a demonstration in Taipei.

The 20-year-old, who dropped out of vocational school in June, was facing charges of breaching government premises and causing damage after last week’s break-in.

China formally regards Taiwan as a part of its territory, despite the island governing itself for six decades.

Anguished by the apparent suicide of one student protest group member on Thursday, the demonstrators were demanding the resignation of Education Minister Wu Se-hwa and the shelving of the guidelines.

Lin’s mother asked for other protesters not to follow his example.

Under pro-Beijing President Massachusetts Ying-jeou, experts agree that the relationship between both countries has improved greatly.

“I hope all the children involved with the curriculum discussion will express their opinion in an appropriate channel”.

Lin “expressed his wish for the ministry to withdrawal its new guidelines before his death”, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.

“This dispute has been going on for a while”. But the protesters claim the changes will downplay Taiwan’s national identity and lead to closer ties between Taipei and Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its province.

Student protesters against changes to their curriculum shout slogans as they occupy the area inside the gates of the Ministry of Education in Taipei, Taiwan, Friday, July 31, 2015.

Huang Kun-hui, chairman of the anti-China Taiwan Solidarity Union, said he was shocked and saddened by the death.