Students vow to continue Taiwan parliament protest after deadline to meet demands ignored

Taiwanese students occupying the Legislative Yuan called on people across the island to join their protest after the ruling party failed to meet their deadline to drop a free-trade pact with the mainland.

The students urged people to gather at the legislature today and tomorrow and besiege local Kuomintang offices to support their movement against the cross-strait services trade agreement. They vowed to carry their campaign against the KMT through local elections later this year, if President Ma Ying-jeou does not withdraw the pact.

Watch: Protesters occupying Taiwan's parliament issue ultimatum

"There will be no turning back," said Lin Fei-fan, one of the leaders of the Black Island Nation Youth Front, which is co-ordinating the effort.

About 200 students seized the parliamentary chamber on Tuesday, and more than 2,000 have surrounded the building in solidarity. The students were also for a time joined by some 30,000 backers of the Democratic Progressive Party, causing some to worry that their movement risked being co-opted by the island's main opposition party.