Many local governments wasted no time in vetoing plans to create legally designated sex-trade zones in their jurisdictions after a proposed amendment aimed at allowing such a move was approved by the Executive Yuan on Thursday.
Under the proposal, sexual transactions conducted in such designated zones would not result in any legal penalties for those involved.
However, any such trade outside the designated areas would be subject to a maximum fine of NT$30,000 (US$1,039), according to the proposed amendment.
According to Taipei City spokesman Chang Chi-chiang (張其強), Taipei is “too crowded” to consider offering such services, noting that the legalization of the sex trade remains a highly controversial subject.
Meanwhile, Greater Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) was quoted by local media as saying that he plans to turn Tainan into a clean city and that the establishment of additional brothels is out of the question.
Greater Kaohsiung, Greater Taichung and New Taipei City (新北市) governments also rejected the idea, saying that they currently have no plans to set up sex-trade zones. The proposal, yet to be approved by the Legislative Yuan, was introduced after the Constitutional Court scrapped a much-criticized regulation that punished only prostitutes while letting their clients go free.
The Ministry of the Interior, (MOI) which drafted the bill has said that a majority of people are in favor of conditionally legalizing the sex industry to ensure it is better regulated.
The ministry dropped an earlier plan to allow small-scale brothels without zoning because monitoring them would be too difficult.
Director of the ministry’s civil affairs department Liu Wen-shih (劉文仕) said even if designated zones were approved, operators would not be allowed to advertise their business in any form.
Taiwan has 11 legal brothels and 49 registered sex workers aged between 30 and 60 in Yilan, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Penghu County.
The largest brothel, located in Taoyuan City, has 11 sex workers who service an average of 200 customers per month, bringing in revenue of up to NT$200,000, according to Liu.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
RSS