HONG KONG, Aug 11 (IPS) - Students shouting slogans and punching the air with their fists are the staple image of protests almost anywhere in the world. In Taiwan, however, security authorities start to fidget whenever they see taxi drivers listening intently to their radios.

Most of the island's tens of thousands of taxi drivers are avid fans of Taiwan's underground radio stations, many of which are run by opposition parties or individuals opposed to the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party.

Not only do the illegal stations criticise the KMT -- which has only lately relaxed its iron grip on the island since it was pushed off mainland China by the communists in 1949 -- they also encourage listeners to call in their views, an 'unthinkable' in Taiwan's state- dominated media.

In addition, Taipei says the stations encourage listeners to take part in anti-government demonstrations, a charge that some of the illegal operators have denied.

But then police descended on 14 of the stations two weeks ago and dismantled transmitters and confiscated equipment. As soon as the illegal operators managed to resume broadcast using stockpiled radio hardware, calls to hit back at the government dominated the airwaves.

Scores of taxi drivers were among the demonstrators who vented their fury on police and journalists last week with stones and sticks. A few days later, an official of the government information agency was stabbed as he left the office.

Bedlam had reigned on the morning of Jul. 30, the day authorities cracked down on the stations. Roadblocks had to be set to prevent taxi drivers from coming to the aid of their favourite stations.

Reports reaching here say it also took nearly 7,000 policemen to battle operators and their supporters and dismantle 11 of the 14 transmitters.

The following day, hundreds of demonstrators attacked government offices and burnt police cars in protest against the clampdown. Eleven people were arrested and 18 injured, including a policeman and at least one photographer beaten up by demonstrators.

Opposition leaders charged the crackdown on the illegal stations was politically motivated since it came one day after members of mainland China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) arrived in Taipei for talks with Taiwan's Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF).

Indeed, Taipei watchers here say the initial protests that greeted the ARATS team on its arrival were not followed by a similar demonstration at the talks venue. They say the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) may have been preoccupied with responding to police raids on the radio stations.

DPP secretary general Su Chen-chang also said the authorities went after the illegal broadcasters because the stations were informing people about the corruption in government and other wrongdoings of Taipei officials.

The government retorted that there was no link at all between its actions against the illegal stations and the Sino-Taiwanese talks. Wu Chung-li, deputy director of the Taiwanese Information Office, said the raids were carried out simply to maintain broadcasting standards and protect the rights of legal radio stations.

In 1993, the Taiwanese government ended 40 years of media monopoly by allowing new radio stations. But many operators refrained from registering their stations under the stringent licencing laws, including strict capital and equipment requirements.

At least of the illegal stations have applied for registration since, but their applications are still pending.

Tensions have eased somewhat following last week's violent protests. But Taipei analysts here say there the island's taxi drivers may be sidetracked from seeking fares again in the coming months, when voters troop to the polls to elect Taiwan's governor and two of Taiwan's biggest cities.

With most of Taiwan's electronic media still controlled by the KMT, the popularity of the illegal radio stations usually peak during election periods, when voters seek relief from the official rhetoric.

The island's newspapers, which have benefitted the most from the government's relaxing of its hold on media, are increasingly becoming more critical of the ruling party. But many Taiwanese seem to prefer listening to the booming voices of the illegal radio stations.

Some broadcast analysts attribute this partly to the stations' use of the Taiwanese dialect instead of Mandarin, the island's official language that dominates the media there.

The analysts say the use of the local dialect appeals to the growing nationalist sentiment among the Taiwanese, who want to have their own identity apart from those in the mainland.