Student protests in Taipei against a new services trade agreement with Beijing are getting lots of headlines this week.  But they aren’t likely to scuttle the deal.

While President Ma Ying-jeou’s efforts to deepen ties between Taiwan and mainland China are contentious, the protests, including an occupation of the parliament, also highlight public discontent with his domestic policies and his governing style.

The protests stem from “an accumulation of frustrations about domestic issues, it’s not just China,” our correspondent notes. People feel “too many things are happening without the public review and public explanation that people want.”

The agreement itself, signed last July, would liberalize trade in services between Taiwan and China. That holds promise but also potential peril for smaller Taiwanese firms. It follows the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement that President Ma signed with Beijing in 2010, a landmark step in the thaw in economic and political relations between Beijing and Taipei that has occurred on his watch.

Ma met with protesters and made some concessions. But despite concerns in some quarters about the deepening economic ties – after all, Beijing sees Taiwan as a province that must someday be reintegrated into the country – they appear likely to continue apace.

The protest leaders seem to be losing some of their followers already. And as far as the agreement goes, nobody is talking about pulling back the deal.