The Trouble With Taiwan’s New Prostitution Rules
Will a decision by Taiwanese authorities to decriminalize prostitution put the island’s sex workers at greater risk? That’s the question critics are asking after the Taiwan government announced last week that it was adjusting penalties and relaxing the restrictions around prostitution in a move it said is aimed at improving and cleaning up the island’s sex industry. The amendment to the Social Order and Maintenance Act stipulates local governments can designate a special sex trade zone for consenting adults. However, all 22 county and city mayors have spoken against fencing off a sex zone in their district on fears of a surge in crime rates and a plunge in real estate values.
Under the new policy, both the sex workers and patrons are subject to fines ranging from NT$1,500 (USD$50) to NT$30,000 for engaging in paid sex outside the permissible vicinity. Before, only the sex workers themselves were penalized while the johns were allowed to go free. As advocates blast the new policy as a “mere sham,” saying the refusal of local leaders to set up the sex trade zones leaves sex workers — most of which are women who are subject to various forms of abuse — in limbo. “Since no local government is willing to designate a so-called red light district, the amendment is basically a complete de facto ban on the sex trade which is no different than before,” said Chung Chun-chu, the head of the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters, or COSWAS. Prostitution, once a thriving industry and an important source of tourism in Taiwan, was first regulated by the government in 1956 when it stipulated only licensed brothels were allowed to operate and that the brothels must close down after the original owner died or be taken over by a member of the immediate family. According to COSWAS, although only less than 10% of the existing brothels received license, the industry continued to prosper between 1970 and 1980, thanks to the huge influxes of Japanese men and American soldiers fighting in Vietnam who frequented the illegal, yet open and ubiquitous sex industry on the island. Tracking the island’s economic boom in the 1990’s, the traditional “teahouse” culture dwindled, giving way to more modern lounges, barber shops and fancy karaoke parlors.
In 2001, the then-Taipei City mayor and currently incarcerated ex-president Chen Shui-bian, imposed a complete ban on brothels and stopped issuing new licenses. The 18 licensed brothels that remained were required to close down after the original owner died or be taken over by a member of the immediate family. Currently, only 11 of the originally licensed brothels are left. However, according to COSWAS, there are more than 100,000 sex workers and two million patrons currently on the island. According to a 2011 U.S. State Department report on human trafficking, many of Taiwan’s sex workers are victims of human smuggling from China and Southeast Asian countries who were “lured to Taiwan through fraudulent marriages and deceptive employments offers for the purposes of sex trafficking and forced labor.”