Prostitution in Taiwan

[2] However, legislation was introduced in 2011 to allow local governments in Taiwan to set up "special sex zones" (Chinese: 性專區) where prostitution is permitted.

At the same time, however, the Ministry of Defense maintained official brothels on outer islands to provide sexual services to the many single military men who arrived from China in 1949.

At roughly the same time, the opening of two U.S. army bases spawned bars and dance halls to cater to the American military population.

[11] However, Chen lost the next election and his successor, Ma Ying-jeou, allowed a grace period that extended to April 2001.

[18] In June 2009, in response to sex workers’ demands and academic research, and citing a commitment to bring Taiwan's legislation into harmony with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Ma Ying-jeou administration announced that prostitution was to be decriminalized, according to Jiang Yi-huah, minister of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission.

[11][19][20][21] Announcing that Article 80 would be abolished, on the grounds of treating prostitution as a matter of human rights, the government concluded that punishing sexual transactions only forced them underground, leaving sex workers open to abuse.

In the meantime jail terms were to be replaced by fines, and police officers would no longer be credited for the arrest of sex workers.

[23] This was the first pronouncement by the Ministry of the Interior on the subject, but plans to allow local red-light districts were opposed by Taipei's Mayor Hau Lung-bin.

Women from China and Southeast Asian countries are lured to Taiwan through fraudulent marriages and deceptive employment offers for purposes of sex trafficking.

Traffickers in Taiwan are also increasingly utilizing smartphone apps and the internet to conduct their recruitment activity and to mask their identities from law enforcement.