Um, no. I know of foreign women who have had men jump out from behind bushes and attack them while they were out running in the middle of the day and in public places, perfectly placed as to avoid getting caught by CCTV. Your statement makes it sound like Taiwan is in some alternate universe from one that human beings live in. I will have to assume that you are not a women and have never walked down the street wearing even a knee length dress with heels. Sure, I feel safer in Taipei than I might in Chicago dressed like that, but men still feel perfectly justified in stopping, staring, and pointing you out to their buddies for much longer than is appropriate (which is exactly zero seconds). If you think it always stops at staring, you are either naive or stupid.
Go to the police with absolutely ANY crime allegation and if you haven’t already done ALL the investigation work for them, they will NOT let you report the crime. Sexual assault is virtually impossible to prosecute and no officer wants something on their record as something they didn’t successfully bring to a close. It’s absolutely pathetic that there were less than 200 rape cases reported last year. There are probably more than that happening in a day.
I don’t know of any woman in this country who hasn’t experienced some form of sexual assault, some of them from drunk bus drivers. DO NOT go around suggesting that rape and sexual assault is something that rarely happens here or that it’s something that only happens among families or in KTVs. Most women, and worse, girls, have no idea what inappropriate touching even is and will genuinely think they should just brush off things that I would take straight to the police (and the press when the police inevitably do nothing).
I myself was sexually assaulted and the FIRST question the Taiwanese friend I confided in asked was “well what were you wearing?”. FUCK YOU I WAS WEARING JEANS AND A T-SHIRT. Victim blaming is VERY real, everywhere on earth, Taiwan much, much more than the West. In the West, at least some have begun to recognize that it is men, socialized to think they can do whatever the hell they want to whomever the hell they want that are to blame for violence against women, not the women (and victims) themselves.
And don’t get me started on abuse against minors done by school teachers in public that I have recorded video of that admin have brushed off as “nothing to be concerned about”. All the training I had to go through in the US where I was warned that not reporting seeing things like inappropriate touching could leave me liable, right out the window.
There is no such thing as consent or body boundaries in this country. Are you safer in Taipei than London or NYC as a women walking alone? Sure. Does that say anything at all? Not really. Taipei generally is “safer” than other cities of its size, but it’s also very, very deferent to men and boys, especially under the law. And no one speaks out about that except for people like me, who are told to “shut up and stop being so judgmental of Taiwanese culture”.