Dead construction workers, Chinese factory employees and expensive call-girls would not seem to have a lot in common. However, besides featuring in recent headline stories, they highlight deficiencies in Taiwan’s immigration and labor policies and laws.
Unfortunately, these are not new problems; they have existed ever since foreign laborers began to be imported into this country and factory jobs exported to China or Southeast Asia. The fact that they still exist points to, if not self-indulgent complacency, then a willingness to turn a blind eye to exploitation and abuse.
Six Indonesians were killed on Sept. 30, along with one Taiwanese worker, when scaffolding for a freeway construction project collapsed. When it turned out they were working illegally, both because the construction contract stipulated no migrants and they had overstayed their working visas, questions about defects in work and safety standards were quickly drowned out by demands for a crackdown on runaway workers and those who hire them.
Much attention has been given to statistics showing that about 39,000 migrant workers have disappeared off the books since they entered the country. Lost in the shuffle once again was the fact that a majority of these runaways were motivated by the need to earn more money before they return home because of the exploitative nature of the migrant labor system. Labor brokerages are allowed to charge outlandish fees, forcing job seekers to borrow enormous sums just to get a job. Charges for room and board and “documentation” fees whittle away at minimum wage salaries until migrants end up working for nothing for the first year or more they are in Taiwan. Repeated proposals to by-pass such brokerages through direct hiring have yet to be enacted.
Laws are in place regulating the entry and employment of Chinese citizens, who are barred from working here except for “professional development training” that restricts them to observing or testing factory procedures. Yet for the past year, according to Next Magazine, Young Fast Optoelectronics Co has been using dozens of employees from its Guangdong Province plants to work production lines here, frequently on 12-hour shifts. Young Fast has denied the report, saying its “training” programs met legal requirements. It’s hard to see how an eight-hour day on a production line, much less a 12-hour shift, could be construed as “testing factory procedures” even by the broadest definition of the term.
That brings us to the prostitutes. Immigration and police agents said they busted a prostitution ring in Taipei this week that specialized in providing Chinese women to wealthy and well-connected clients. The women were allegedly brought into the country under fake marriage certificates, and like so many of their blue-collar brethren, had to work for free initially to pay off their “transportation debts.” After their first 100 clients, the women could keep 30 percent of their fees, which reportedly ranged between NT$8,000 and NT$20,000. Do the math — the ringleaders were really raking it in from their top-priced call girls before the women saw a single NT dollar.
Abuses such as these, and the inability of the Council of Labor Affairs and the National Immigration Agency to either curb such exploitation or keep better track of who is in the country should make legislators and elected officials think twice about demands from big business that the minimum wage not apply to migrant workers in special economic and free-trade zones as an incentive to get factory owners to return their production lines to Taiwan.
The council must put some teeth into its regulations to prevent the abuse of workers, whether Taiwanese, migrants or Chinese “guest laborers,” and the immigration agency must do a better job of tracking Chinese arriving for marriage or “professional visits” and other migrants. Until then, adding to these agencies’ job burdens would be a disservice to their employees, who have to execute flawed legislation, and to all workers — as well as a disgrace to the nation.
The Chinese government on March 29 sent shock waves through the Tibetan Buddhist community by announcing the untimely death of one of its most revered spiritual figures, Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche. His sudden passing in Vietnam raised widespread suspicion and concern among his followers, who demanded an investigation. International human rights organization Human Rights Watch joined their call and urged a thorough investigation into his death, highlighting the potential involvement of the Chinese government. At just 56 years old, Rinpoche was influential not only as a spiritual leader, but also for his steadfast efforts to preserve and promote Tibetan identity and cultural
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Former minister of culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) has long wielded influence through the power of words. Her articles once served as a moral compass for a society in transition. However, as her April 1 guest article in the New York Times, “The Clock Is Ticking for Taiwan,” makes all too clear, even celebrated prose can mislead when romanticism clouds political judgement. Lung crafts a narrative that is less an analysis of Taiwan’s geopolitical reality than an exercise in wistful nostalgia. As political scientists and international relations academics, we believe it is crucial to correct the misconceptions embedded in her article,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
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