An overwhelming 78.16 percent of respondents to a survey believe that the government should set up a prostitution district in Taiwan.
The results of the poll, which was conducted by the Open weekly magazine, were released yesterday and followed a recent crackdown on the Taipei City sex trade.
The survey was conducted by telephone from Nov. 18-21. A total of 1,048 samples were collected with a margin of error of 3.03 percent.
Legislative candidate Chiu Chang (邱彰), Taipei City Councilwoman Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) and various scholars were on hand at a news conference held by the magazine at the Legislative Yuan.
Chiu and Lin urged the government to heed the public's views on setting up a brothel district.
They also urged the government to compile reports on the impact legalized brothels would have on a city like Taipei.
The survey found that 26.81 percent of the respondents believe that the establishment of such a zone would help to "root out sex problems."
The poll results also show that the public believe that the prostitution problem is most serious in Taipei City (29.63 percent of respondents), followed by Taichung City (29.34 percent), Taipei County (3.45 percent), and Kaohsiung City (3.07 percent).
Lin explained that, because of many recent media reports on the rigorous crackdown on the sex trade in Taipei City, people may have an "exaggerated" perception of the sex trade in the city.
Associate Professor Shih Chi-sheng (
Shih criticized Taipei Major Ma Ying-jeou's (
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,