In its latest international human rights report, the US State Department said Taiwan “generally respected” human rights last year, but that human trafficking, abuse of foreign workers, discrimination and violence against women and government corruption persisted.
The report’s biggest criticism of Taiwan concerned violence against women.
“Rape and domestic violence remained a serious problem,” it said.
“Because victims were socially stigmatized, many did not report the crime and the MOI [Ministry of the Interior] estimated that the total number of sexual assaults was ten times the number reported to the police,” it said.
The report cited “strong social pressure not to disgrace their families” as a key reason that prevents women from reporting rape or sexual assault to the police.
PROSTITUTION
Prostitution, including child prostitution, remained a problem, the report said.
“Child abuse continued to be a widespread problem ... Approximately 90 percent of abusers were parents, relatives or caregivers,” it said.
It appears that there has been a “significant increase” over the last year in the number of boys forced into prostitution, it said.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
The report also cited Taiwan as a destination for trafficked persons from nearby countries.
“Trafficking in persons continued to be a problem. Taiwan is primarily a destination for Southeast Asian and PRC [People’s Republic of China] nationals trafficked into forced labor or sexual exploitation,” it said.
“Some women smuggled into Taiwan to seek illegal work were subsequently forced to work in the commercial sex industry,” it said.
In addition, the report cited “reports of women being trafficked from Taiwan for sexual exploitation purposes to Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries.”
“Taiwan authorities reported that traffickers continued to use fraudulent marriages as a method for human trafficking, in part because penalties for ‘husbands’ were lenient,” the report said.
The State Department report said that foreign spouses were targets of discrimination both inside and outside the home and said arranging marriages through brokers degraded women and treated them as property.
“Most marriages to foreign citizen spouses were arranged by brokers whose local advertisements were degrading to women,” it said.
ARRANGED MARRIAGES
“Brokers typically flew clients to other Southeast Asian countries where they could choose from a group of eligible women recruited by the broker. This commercialized process likened foreign spouses to property and contributed to their mistreatment,” it said.
“Social and economic marginalization contributed to an abnormally high rate of domestic violence in marriages to foreign spouses,” it said.
CORRUPTION AND JUSTICE
On the nation’s judicial system, the State Department said: “Although the authorities made efforts to eliminate corruption and to diminish political influence in the judiciary, residual problems remained.”
“During the year many political leaders publicly questioned the impartiality of judges and prosecutors involved in several high-profile and politically sensitive cases,” it said.
On the media, the report was favorable, saying Taiwan had a “vigorous and active free press.”
The report can be viewed at www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eap/119038.htm.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS