A Taipei City councilor yesterday showed off a newly released book on prostitution in Taiwan to lambast the Taipei and Kaohsiung city governments for failing to eradicate the sex industry.
The three Japanese authors claim they wrote the book based on their own experience. The 200-page guidebook, entitled Paradise in Taiwan, details information on Taipei and Kaohsiung cities' sex industry with photos, maps and information such as prices, service descriptions and the names of streets and hotels in which sex services can be found.
"Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Wang was referring to a campaign launched by Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou last September. Ma at the time promised that he would completely wipe out prostitution in Taipei within 90 days.
However, Ma retracted his promise just two months later. Ma conceded the difficulty of driving out the entire sex industry. Still planning to press on with the campaign, Ma taunted the sex industry. "If you [the sex industry] dare, don't run away. We'll make it difficult for you to survive and we'll eventually catch you," he said.
Wang said, "Apparently, the sex industry heard Ma and it has not only decided to stay but has also grown arrogant and has managed to build up a name big enough to attract foreigners."
"It is a shame that the Japanese know where to find sexual services in Taipei City but Mayor Ma and the Taipei City police don't," said Wang.
Wang went on to question whether Ma's campaign was merely a show.
Taipei City Government spokesman Wu Yu-sheng (
"It's possible that the book was written a few years ago and that its information is out of date," Wu said, pointing out that some of the hotels listed in the book "are no longer in existence."
While disagreeing with Wu's remarks, Ma admitted that the contents of the book are likely factual, at least to a certain extent, and that "the city government would try to find out why such an impression has been left with foreigners," said Ma.
Meanwhile, Ma voiced his frustration with the authors, saying that they had offended both Taipei citizens and himself by disregarding the city's efforts against the sex industry.
Both Kaohsiung City Mayor Frank Hsieh (
"The police have the right to confiscate the book," said Lin Shih-hsi (
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS