It is truly unthinkable that a sex guide published in Japanese, entitled Paradise in Taiwan (
The crackdown on the sex industry in Taiwan is a matter of political correctness. After this latest tempest in a teacup broke out, Kaohsiung City Mayor Frank Hsieh (
Ma and Taipei citizens took great offense at the book. But is the sex trade really the scourge of the nation?
Last October, the German parliament passed laws raising the status of prostitutes. Despite having been legal, the flesh trade in Germany is still considered a profession that violates public order and good customs. Sex workers, though required to pay taxes, had effectively been excluded from the social-welfare system. Under the new laws, prostitutes will be no different from other workers and will recieve both health and unemployment insurance. Statistics show that one-quarter of German men have paid for sexual services and the nation's prostitutes may number as many as 400,000.
It is widely known that the Netherlands is a haven for the sex industry. Scantily-clad "shop-window girls" advertise their charms in red light districts in Amsterdam and other cities. Countless prostitutes work in brothels scattered in residential areas and in escort businesses advertised in front of five-star hotels. The government's response to all this, apart from prohibiting exploitation from middlemen and child prostitution, has been to adopt a laissez-faire policy.
In the 17th century, prostitutes caught by the Dutch authorities would have an ear cut off. Nowadays the practical Dutch people know it is better to open up prostitution, since there is no way to prevent it. They admit that sex is one of humanity's basic desires and that sex workers can meet people's physiological needs.
The police in Amsterdam issue an English brochure for foreign visitors. In addition to the locations of red light districts, the guide's content advises visitors to open their eyes wide when they are "hunting" because shop-window girls "are not always women" -- some may be transvestites, transsexuals or hermaphrodites.
I don't believe that any of this is news to Ma, who is well-versed in the ways of the world. When, as Taipei City Mayor, Chen Shui-bian (
Not all Taipei citizens, in reality, are hypocrites who say they hate sex. According to a report released in December called Taipei Citizens' Understanding and Attitudes on the Sex Trade, 80 percent of Taipei citizens favored regulating the city's sex industry and confining it to selected areas.
Ma made himself a Sisyphus when he proudly said, "[The city government] will drive the sex trade out of Taipei City within a month." When a stone has been rolled to the top of a slope, it just rolls down again. The sex industry cannot be wiped out. Instead of endlessly rolling the stone, perhaps Ma should come up with another set of policies to regulate the industry.
Huang Jui-ming is an assistant professor at the Institute of Labor Studies at National Chung Cheng University.
Translated by Jackie Lin
The conflict in the Middle East has been disrupting financial markets, raising concerns about rising inflationary pressures and global economic growth. One market that some investors are particularly worried about has not been heavily covered in the news: the private credit market. Even before the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, global capital markets had faced growing structural pressure — the deteriorating funding conditions in the private credit market. The private credit market is where companies borrow funds directly from nonbank financial institutions such as asset management companies, insurance companies and private lending platforms. Its popularity has risen since
The Donald Trump administration’s approach to China broadly, and to cross-Strait relations in particular, remains a conundrum. The 2025 US National Security Strategy prioritized the defense of Taiwan in a way that surprised some observers of the Trump administration: “Deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority.” Two months later, Taiwan went entirely unmentioned in the US National Defense Strategy, as did military overmatch vis-a-vis China, giving renewed cause for concern. How to interpret these varying statements remains an open question. In both documents, the Indo-Pacific is listed as a second priority behind homeland defense and
Every analyst watching Iran’s succession crisis is asking who would replace supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Yet, the real question is whether China has learned enough from the Persian Gulf to survive a war over Taiwan. Beijing purchases roughly 90 percent of Iran’s exported crude — some 1.61 million barrels per day last year — and holds a US$400 billion, 25-year cooperation agreement binding it to Tehran’s stability. However, this is not simply the story of a patron protecting an investment. China has spent years engineering a sanctions-evasion architecture that was never really about Iran — it was about Taiwan. The
In an op-ed published in Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said that Taiwan should not have to choose between aligning with Beijing or Washington, and advocated for cooperation with Beijing under the so-called “1992 consensus” as a form of “strategic ambiguity.” However, Cheng has either misunderstood the geopolitical reality and chosen appeasement, or is trying to fool an international audience with her doublespeak; nonetheless, it risks sending the wrong message to Taiwan’s democratic allies and partners. Cheng stressed that “Taiwan does not have to choose,” as while Beijing and Washington compete, Taiwan is strongest when
RSS