The nation’s last legal brothel has closed its doors, partly due to the effects of the COVID-19 oubreak, in what could mean an end to licensed brothels in the country, local police said yesterday.
Taoyuan-based Tientienle (天天樂) in March reported to police that it would close its doors on Wednesday last week, but has not applied to cancel its license, police said.
If the owner of the brothel does not resume operations by July 1, the license would be automatically revoked in accordance with regulations, police said.
Photo: Yu Jui-jen, Taipei Times
The COVID-19 pandemic decimated business at the brothel, which saw a steady decline in clients over the years as illicit online prostitution grew, local media reported.
Since the most recent spike in domestic COVID-19 cases began in March, the four registered sex workers employed by Tientienle found it hard to make a steady income and left the brothel, reports said.
To phase out prostitution, the government started to regulate brothels in 1956, stipulating that only licensed establishments would be allowed to operate, but would have to close once the original owner died.
Tientienle was one of about 500 brothels that received licenses since the 1956 policy was enacted, reports said.
At the beginning of 2018, there were only four legal brothels in Taiwan, including one in Taichung, which shut down voluntarily at the end of that year, one in Yilan that was forced to close by the government, one in Penghu County that was closed after its owner passed away, and Tientienle.
In 2011, the legislature revised the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) to allow local governments to set up red-light districts to legally manage the sex trade, following a constitutional ruling in 2019 that declared Article 80 of the act unconstitutional, as it punished sex workers, but not their clients.
As sex work remains a controversial issue, no local government has so far proposed the creation of a legal red-light area.
The coast guard on Friday took a Chinese fishing boat and the 17 people on board into custody, after it rammed into a patrol boat while attempting to flee. A 100-tonne coast guard vessel at about 8am discovered a Chinese fishing boat illegally operating in waters about 11 nautical miles (20.4km) northwest of Hsinchu, the Hsinchu offshore flotilla of the Coast Guard Administration said. The crew refused to allow law enforcement to board the ship and attempted to flee, it added. The coast guard vessel and another ship chased the fishing boat for about a half hour, during which time the Chinese boat
Vice President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that Beijing was trying to “annex” Taiwan, while China said its recent series of drills near Taiwan are aimed at combating the “arrogance” of separatist forces. The Ministry of National Defense earlier this month said that it had observed dozens of Chinese fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships and the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, operating nearby. The increased frequency of China’s military activities has raised the risk of events “getting out of hand” and sparking an accidental clash, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said last week. Asked about the spurt
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
RSS