For a 24-year-old Chinese woman surnamed Liu, it was the opportunity to earn money that brought her to this side of the Taiwan Strait.
The graduate of Normal University in Sichuan Province made just 1,000 yuan (NT$4,200) a month teaching elementary school -- a job many in China consider to be well-paid.
But as a prostitute in Taiwan, she earns considerably more in just a single session with a client.
PHOTO: LIAO RAY-SHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
On most nights, Liu sees five to six men -- earning between NT$6,000 and NT$8,000 per session.
"Most of these Chinese girls will return to China after they think they've earned enough money," said a Taipei police officer, who asked not to be identified. "Very few of them will quit prostitution and stay in Taiwan afterwards."
According to police sources, more and more women are coming from China to work as prostitutes. While there are no hard numbers, one city councilor estimates that at least 500 prostitutes from China are working in Taipei today.
A shared culture and language makes China an ideal source for brothel owners to find prostitutes to work in Taiwan, police say.
But while the world's oldest profession is nothing new in Taiwan -- barber shops that have never cut a lock of hair flourish around the country -- what is new is a growing intolerance toward the sex industry.
Embarrassed by allegations of police officers colluding with the sex industry, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) -- like his predecessor, Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) -- has vowed to do something.
Earlier this month, Ma promised to rid Taipei of the sex industry within three months.
On Oct. 20, roughly 200 illegal Chinese immigrants were deported from Matsu. Of those, about 50 were prostitutes.
Still, many doubt Ma will be successful in his efforts to drive out the sex industry.
And women's groups such as the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters say legislation should be introduced to legalize prostitution. They say crackdowns will do little but push the sex industry further underground, nor will it solve the problem of police corruption.
Fake marriages
According to police statistics, many Chinese prostitutes come to Taiwan through fake marriages or human smugglers.
Liu, who arrived in September, told police after her arrest that her "husband" paid NT$250,000 to a human trafficker for her to be brought to Taiwan.
After arriving, she started to work for her "husband" in order to pay back her fees.
"I need more money," Liu said. "My fake husband said that I have to pay him back so I can keep my own money instead of working for him."
Police say that many brothels use contract taxi drivers, who double as bodyguards, to deliver women to hotels or any location chosen by the customer.
Sometimes, a prostitute marries a driver to receive legal status in Taiwan. But in most cases a Chinese prostitute never meets her legal husband during her stay in Taiwan.
According to the Taipei police officer, marriage to a Taiwan national isn't enough to keep a Chinese prostitute from being deported.
"If a Chinese prostitute enters Taiwan via marriage, no matter whether the relationship is genuine or not, the police will submit the case to the Bureau of Immigration under the Ministry of the Interior," the officer said.
"When the paperwork is done, the case will be sent back to the police again for further investigation," he said. "Then the Chinese prostitute will be deported. The entire process will take approximately five days if the paperwork travels fast."
NT$4.5 Billion a year
According to estimates by New Party City Councilor Lee Hsin (李新), there are roughly 500 Chinese prostitutes working in Taipei.
The group is estimated to earn NT$12.5 million in profits for the sex industry daily, with each woman seeing about five clients a day at NT$5,000 per session. That works out to about NT$4.5 billion per year.
Most Chinese prostitutes after their arrest are sent to a detention center in Hsinchu, which is officially the nation's only illegal-immigrant detention center for women. There are two other centers for men.
But in recent weeks, due to Ma's crackdown, the Hsinchu center has been packed, and some detainees have been sent to the nation's other two detention centers in Ilan and Matsu.
Before a woman is deported, prosecutors investigate whether she was involved in any other crime.
In the meantime, detainees must wait for the Chinese Red Cross Society to schedule ships between Matsu and Xiamen or Kinmen and Xiamen.
On average, Chinese immigrants are held for roughly four months before being sent home.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS