The MeToo movement comes to Taiwan
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A cascade of sexual assault allegations is unfolding in Taiwan, with accusations directed at staffers in the country’s ruling party, the dissident community and a Polish diplomat.
The big picture: This is the first #MeToo-style movement in Taiwan, widely perceived as one of the most progressive countries in Asia, with legal same-sex marriage and a female president.
- A Netflix drama called "Wave Makers," about sexual assault allegations during a political campaign in Taiwan, helped inspire some of the initial women who came forward.
- “It seems like the issue of sexual harassment and assault has been suppressed all along — as if we’ve been swallowing it for a bigger political cause and sacrificing ourselves for the sake of the bigger picture,” Chien Li-ying, a writer for the Netflix show, told CNN.
What's happening: Since May, more than a dozen allegations have been made against political figures, per Taiwan News.
- Many of the accusations have been made against staffers in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which casts itself as the party of equality.
What they're saying: "As the president and former chairman of the DPP, I would like to express my apology to society once again," President Tsai Ing-wen wrote in a June 6 Facebook post.
- "The recent events are not about politics or elections, but remind us that apart from apologizing, we must work together to shape a safer and friendlier society."
- Tsai laid out steps her administration will take to combat sexual harassment.
More people have now come forward with accusations against figures beyond the DPP as well, including a lawmaker with the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party and Chinese pro-democracy activist Wang Dan, who now resides in Taiwan. Wang has denied the accusations.
- The KMT has promised to investigate the allegations.
The latest allegation involves a foreign diplomat formerly posted in Taipei.
- Over the weekend, Yu-Fen Lai, a Taiwanese citizen who currently works at a German think tank in Taipei, wrote on her Facebook and Twitter accounts that she had been sexually assaulted by Bartosz Ryś, former deputy director of Poland's representative office in Taipei.
- She said she had filed a complaint but that prosecutors and police did not believe her account. The Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
- Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Taipei City Government’s Women’s and Children’s Protection Division had notified it about the case in November, per the Taipei Times. The ministry said it would respect the prosecutors' decision not to press charges.
- Ryś declined to comment. He posted in Chinese on Twitter on June 10 that the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office and the Taiwan Higher Prosecutor’s Office had determined that Lai's allegations were "not valid."
What to watch: The DPP is facing a tough campaign season ahead of the presidential election in January, after suffering major losses in local elections last year.
- The sexual assault allegations could weaken its support, especially among younger voters who tend to care more about gender issues, per the Wall Street Journal.
