The Sexual Harassment Prevention Law (
First, the law was in fact passed on Feb. 5 last year, and was set to be implemented a year later. But the authorities in charge did not pass the implementation regulations for the law until December last year, and didn't pass the Sexual Harassment Prevention Guidelines (
The law stipulates that all "units" with 10 or more members, employees or customers must set up a complaint line. Those with 30 or more must stipulate and publicize prevention measures. By these regulations, all snack shops or grocery stores with more than 30 customers per day must also have complaint channels and prevention measures. Those who do not will face a fine of between NT$10,000 and NT$100,000 (US$310 and US$3,100).
To avoid penalties, it's likely that all stands, shops and companies will have "no sexual harassment" posters everywhere. It will be just like in the past, when Taiwan's society was full of posters warning "Caution! Communist bandits are around you."
Moreover, the extremely brief preparation period overlapped with the Lunar New Year holiday.
But putting this aside, the rules -- which apply even to food shops run by just one or two people -- are too stringent, and are unlikely to be effective in preventing sexual harassment. The law stipulates that once a sexual harassment case occurs, it may take as long as 21 days before an investigation is launched. With the investigation process and defendants' appeals, it could take as long as 231 days to process a case and get a final resolution. Such a long process wastes time, and victims may have nowhere to go for help due to the complicated procedures involved, and the likelihood that officials in charge will try to pass the buck.
The Ministry of the Interior recently held a public hearing on the law. The information kit available at the meeting indicated that calling women "ornaments" or using cliches such as "women are emotional" constitute sexual harassment. But by that logic, is it also sexual harassment to call men simple-minded creatures with well-developed muscles? Categorizing such common stereotyping as sexual harassment risks obscuring the seriousness of real harassment. And it makes the already hazy definition of harassment even more unclear. With such confusing guidelines, the public will be at a loss as to what behavior is illegal.
Given these difficulties, it is unlikely that the Sexual Harassment Prevention Law will achieve its goal. In fact, as a result of its flaws, it may even harm the rights of individuals. The law must be amended as soon as possible.
Huang Yi-ling is an assistant to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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