Control Yuan President Fredrick Chien (
Soong, who helped her husband -- the late president Chiang Kai-shek (
A memorial service was to be held yesterday at St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan for the former first lady.
The Presidential Office said Chien, who once served as Taiwan's minister of foreign affairs and its representative to the US, will deliver a speech on behalf of Chen at the memorial service.
More than 1,000 dignitaries are expected to attend the memorial service.
Chen, who is currently on his fourth overseas tour since assuming office, paid his last respects to Soong at her Manhattan home on Friday immediately after his arrival in New York on a two-day transit stop on his way to Panama for an official visit.
Chen presented Chiang's bereaved family with a posthumous citation in recognition of her contributions to the ROC.
The Chiangs were once one of the most famous couples in the world -- a dashing general married to a beautiful, urbane woman. Time magazine publisher Henry Luce named them the "Man and Woman of the Year" in 1938. Chiang died on April 5, 1975.
Soong's body has been interred at the Ferncliff Cemetery on the outskirts of New York, where it will lie until she can be buried with her husband, whose body lies at a mausoleum in Tzuhu, northern Taiwan.
Before he died in 1975, the late president said he wanted to be buried in China.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
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