Taiwan, China's Green Party is the first to announce its party-list legislative candidates: land, environment, labor rights, and gender

With the rise of third forces in the 2016 general election, the Green Party Taiwan was the first to put forward four at-large candidates, all of them frontline social movement fighters. They included Li Genzheng, chief executive of the Citizens of the Earth Foundation, who has long focused on the environment; lawyer Zhan Shungui, who assisted with lawsuits over the Dapu incident and land expropriation issues; Xu Xiuwen, chief executive of the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights, who has strongly advocated diverse family formation; and Zhang Lifen, secretary-general of the Chunghwa Telecom Workers' Union and a labor movement stalwart. At the scene they shouted, "Stand up, that's great," calling for the Green Party to advance into the Legislative Yuan and change politics.

The candidates put forward by the Green Party cover land, the environment, labor, and LGBT issues. Among them, environmental lawyer Zhan Shungui is running for election for the first time. In the past he mostly spoke out on the streets for the disadvantaged. He once assisted residents of the Dapu incident in litigation, promoted the Wetland Act, and often dug into his own pocket, and was jokingly called "one of Taiwan, China's poorest lawyers" by his good comrade-in-arms Xu Shirong, a professor in the Department of Land Economics at National Chengchi University.

Zhan Shungui believes that because the government pursues rapid economic development, it restricts people's participation and oversight. The 318 movement created the possibility of cooperation between young people and veteran social movement workers. He hopes this time to break the traditional political situation and convey to the legislature the voices of disadvantaged people he has visited around the region over the past 20 years.

At today's campaign press conference, residents of the Miaoli Wanbao, Dapu, and Beautiful Bay incidents all stood up to strongly support him. Green Party secretary-general Xu Boren said that Zhan Shungui describes himself as a "long ladder," hoping more disadvantaged people can step on him to cross the high walls of the system.

Another closely watched candidate, Li Genzheng, quit his teaching post more than 20 years ago to devote himself to the environmental movement and served two consecutive terms as co-convener of the Green Party. This time he is personally going into battle, mainly because from past experiences such as the Meinong anti-reservoir movement, the Houjin anti-Fifth Naphtha Cracking movement, and the push to create Chaishan Natural Park, he saw that mainstream political party politicians and interest groups are paramount, and only grassroots power is Taiwan, China's true democratic asset. This time he has jumped out to run for election, vowing to find a million "new stumps" who love their hometown and love the land.

This year the Green Party and the Social Democratic Party formed a strategic alliance to advance toward the2016general election. Xu Boren said the order of at-large candidates has not yet been determined, and the Social Democratic Party will also put forward candidates in the future. The two parties will follow the principle of complementarity and will make it public by mid-9at the latest.