Taipei protests follow news of first talks between China, Taiwan leaders

Wednesday's protests were being led by legislative candidate Huang Kuo-chang, a leader of the Sunflower Movement, which in 2014 opposed a planned trade deal with China. The protesters, worried about Beijing's growing influence on the island, said President Ma has let down the Taiwanese people.

"Beijing's move will not only affect the coming presidential election [in January], but it is also a shot at Taiwan's democracy," protester Yung-ming Hsu, a political analyst at Taipei-based Soochow University, told reporters outside the parliament building.

Taiwan opposition leader and presidential front-runner Tsai Ing-wen, of the DPP, on Wednesday said she "felt very surprised" to hear about Saturday's talks.

"A meeting of the leaders of the two sides across the strait is a great event, involving the dignity and national interests of Taiwan," she told reporters. "But to let the people know in such a hasty and chaotic manner is damaging to Taiwan's democracy."

The DPP also called on President Ma to calm anxiety over the historic meeting and assure people it will not affect Taiwan's status. 

"This kind of situation needs to be explained fully to the people and calm down the anxiety of the people in Taiwan that President Ma has not over-promised China anything that would hamper Taiwan's current status and its long term interests," Joseph Wu, secretary-general of the DPP, told Reuters.

The DPP also released a statement Wednesday, criticizing the meeting as being "hastily arranged in a non-transparent manner." 

"President Ma has stated in the past that if a Ma-Xi meeting were to occur, it must be conducted under the conditions of 'national necessity, popular support, and legislative oversight,'" the statement read. "However, President Ma’s surprise announcement of the meeting just days before the event and its lack of public consensus has added to his long record of opaque decision-making. His actions, which run counter to democratic principles and show a clear attempt to dodge oversight, are unacceptable to the Taiwanese people."

The unexpected meeting follows a gradual warming of relations with Beijing since Ma of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power in 2008. The two presidents will "exchange views on cross-strait issues" Ma's spokesman Charles Chen said on Tuesday, referring to the stretch of water separating mainland China and Taiwan.

The intention of the visit is to "secure cross-strait peace" but no agreement will be signed, he said. Beijing still considers the island part of its territory even though the two sides have been governed separately since nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and his KMT forces fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war to Mao Zedong's communists.

"The purpose of President Ma's visit is to secure cross-strait peace and maintain the status quo of the Taiwan Straits," Chen said in a statement. "No agreement will be signed, nor any joint statement be released," he said, adding that Ma will hold an international press conference on Thursday.

Al Jazeera and wire services