"Oppose ECFA!", "Save Taiwan!", protesters shouted at the march in downtown Taipei organised by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

The party claimed 100,000 people had turned out to demonstrate against the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), while the police put the number at 32,000.

"Taiwan should decide its own future," DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen told supporters who thronged a square near the presidential office despite heavy rain. "We don't want to fall victim to ECFA because many people will lose their jobs."

Security was tight, with over 2,000 police deployed for the event, organised before Taiwanese envoy Chiang Pin-kung travels to China to sign the agreement on Tuesday.

Taiwan and China have been governed separately since a civil war in 1949, but Beijing considers the self-ruled island part of its territory and has vowed to get it back, by force if necessary.

President Ma Ying-jeou, who was visiting the island's south and has steered a course towards rapprochement with Beijing, urged the DPP not to "oppose ECFA for the sake of opposing it.

"We respect the people's rights to rally but we hope the DPP can rationally monitor the pact," he told reporters.

The deal will lead to preferential tariffs for 539 Taiwanese product categories in areas stretching from petrochemicals to textiles, while applying to only about half as many Chinese items.

Former president Lee Teng-hui, a vocal critic of China, told the crowd: "ECFA will benefit big corporations rather than the general public, labour or small businesses.... It is wrong and it will hurt Taiwan."

Ties with China have improved markedly since Ma took office in 2008 following years of rising tension when the DPP and Lee were in power.

The current government has argued the deal will boost growth and employment.

Beijing is ready to go ahead with the accord because "the two sides are one family," Zheng Lizhong, a negotiator for the Chinese side, said in Taipei this week.

But opponents say the accord will strengthen China's clout and mark a first step towards reunification.

"There is no free lunch in this world," said Andrew Chen, a businessman in Taipei, brandishing a World Cup-style South African vuvuzela trumpet in his hands. "I think Taiwan is getting too close to China and we need to be on our guard."

Protesters said they were using the "vuvuzela," which sounds like "upset" in Taiwanese, to show their anger.

Jason Ho, a graduate student, complained that the government should not have signed the deal without the people's consent: "The public doesn't even know what's on ECFA and it's already a done deal. It's very upsetting."

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