 In recent years, Taiwan's laws have focused on combating sexual discrimination, granting greater accommodation to conscientious objectors (Republic of China has obligatory national service), and upholding cultural and linguistic pluralism.In 2001, the Ministry of Justice issued a draft version of the Basic Law On The Guarantees of Human Rights.For significant periods of Taiwan's history, both before and after 1949, when the Republic of China lost control of mainland China while only maintaining control of Taiwan, linguistic and cultural rights for minorities or non-power holding groups were often repressed.