Taiwan has legalized the creation of red light districts in a bid to regulate the sex industry, but prostitutes say the new law could actually worsen their plight.
Under the law passed by the legislature on Friday, local governments are allowed to set up special penalty-free sex trade zones, but outside them prostitutes will still be fined — as, for the first time, will their clients and pimps.
The Council of Grand Justices scrapped the previous law punishing only prostitutes on the grounds it was unfair, but so far no local authority has yet said it will create a legal prostitution area, leaving streetwalkers fearing they face the worst of both worlds.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
The new law is a bid to protect women such as Mei Hsiang, a 58-year-old prostitute working in Taipei, but she fears it is more likely to put her out of business.
“As for the zones, I don’t know where the local government can set them up, so it’s empty talk,” she said.
“Punishing the clients is worse than punishing us because the clients will not come for fear of being caught and fined and we won’t be able to make a living,” she said.
“I feel hopeless about the future because the police will go after street walkers who are at the bottom of the food chain,” she said.
A recent survey of 22 local governments by the Chinese-language Apple Daily found none supported the plan, 21 rejected it and only one was still undecided.
“We will not consider opening a sex trade zone because there is no public consensus on this highly controversial issue,” said Edward Zhang, spokesman for the Taipei City Government.
“Taipei is too crowded to provide a suitable location away from schools and residential areas,” he said.
While there is no official figure for the scale of Taiwan’s paid-for sex business, observers estimate it generates NT$60 billion (US$2 billion) a year.
Many of the establishments are operated under the guise of teahouses, massage parlors, skin care salons or nightclubs, while streetwalkers constitute less than 10 percent of the profession, observers say.
A handful of prostitutes are authorized to work under laws dating from 1956, but the government has stopped issuing new licenses to phase out old public brothels.
Chung Chun-chu (鍾君竺), chief of the advocacy group Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters, said the new legislation continues to discriminate against prostitutes.
“We are asking that no punishment is attached to the sex industry just like any other profession,” she said. “The women are trying to earn a living and their working rights should be protected.”
Some women’s rights groups oppose the government plan for fear that red-light districts would breed more crime and human smuggling.
“We cannot eliminate the sex trade, but we can reduce its scale. It is wrong to legalize prostitution which exploits and discriminates against women,” said Chi Hui-jung (紀惠容), executive director of the Garden of Hope Foundation.
Chi said the central government should have passed a law punishing only those who buy sex services, instead of “throwing the hot potato” to local authorities.
Deputy Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) said it was a “highly divisive issue” and it was difficult to come up with a solution that everybody would support.
However, a taxi driver, who said he paid regularly for sex services, called the special zone policy “hypocritical.”
“The rich and powerful can enjoy themselves at exclusive clubs without worrying about being caught, but regular people like me will have more troubles getting the services we need,” he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and