Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) proposal to decriminalize prostitution received a mixed reaction from legislators yesterday.
When asked for comment, KMT Legislator Yang Li-huan (楊麗環) said she had doubts about the possible impact on the nation’s traditional ethics.
“After all, there is a significant difference between the traditional morality in Taiwan and the West’s ideas about sex,” Yang said.
“If we abolish punishment for prostitutes, the bill could deal a blow to society,” she said.
KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said it would be very difficult for the legislature to pass the bill as legalizing prostitution remains a controversial issue.
The legislators were responding to a bill proposed by Cheng last week that would amend the existing law under which prostitutes are punished but their clients are not.
The Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) allows law enforcement authorities to detain prostitutes for a maximum of three days and fine them up to NT$30,000 (US$880).
Authorities also have the power to send prostitutes to correction institutions for a period of between six months and 12 months.
Cheng’s proposal seeks to abolish these regulations and to legalize sexual transactions between consenting adults.
Cheng, who had previously sent her legislative aides to probe the issue at the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters, told reporters on Sunday that decriminalizing prostitution would help sex workers as current legislation makes it impossible for them to seek assistance from law enforcement authorities if they suffer violence, abuse or discrimination.
Her proposal garnered enough signatures for it to be discussed on the legislative floor.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) on Sunday said legislators could hold public hearings to gauge public opinion on the issue.
KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) said he supported the bill under the precondition that the government takes strict measures to manage the sex industry.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) said the caucus has not taken a position on the issue.
“Different DPP legislators have different positions, and I think it will be hard to form a consensus on such a controversial issue,” Lee said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,