The main figures from the Pan-Green Coalition, including Chen Shui-bian and former president Lee Teng-hui, initiated the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally in which more than two million people joined hands from the very north of Taiwan to south to form an unbroken human chain. As an act of defiance against the P.R.China as well as a promotion of Taiwanese national identity, it occurred on February 28 in remembrance of the February 28 Incident. This demonstration was inspired by the human chain of two million that was organized in the Baltic states in 1989, where the Soviet Union later invaded to stop the Baltic states from declaring independence. Although billed as non-political, some of the symbolism of the demonstration, particularly the point in the event where participants "turn away from China," veered clearly toward support of Taiwan independence, and hence was not attended by members of the Pan-Blue Coalition.