Huang Kuo-chang: from Sunflower to saboteurBy John ChengDuring the Sunflower movement, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), who is now chairman of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), gave voice to a generation’s anger toward opaque power, procedural abuse and backroom deals. Huang still speaks the language of accountability, invokes constitutional purity and escalates conflict in a show of moral seriousness. It was at that moment that many veterans of the Sunflower movement publicly broke with Huang — not because they opposed reform, but because that goal had been replaced by attrition. The Sunflower movement did not seek to paralyze government; it sought to restore limits on it. The Sunflower movement taught Taiwan that democracy is worth defending even when it is slow, frustrating and imperfect.

Source: Taipei Times January 13, 2026 16:10 UTC