A funeral with full military honors was held on Monday at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington for former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Nat Bellocchi, who died in November last year.
Before entering the US diplomatic service in 1955, Bellocchi served as a first lieutenant in the Korean War and then attended Georgetown University.
The ceremony, delayed because of the long waiting list at the cemetery for full-honor ceremonies, included a horse-drawn carriage with caisson, a US Army marching band, a bugler playing Taps and a 21-gun salute.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Communique
Bellocchi served as AIT chairman from 1990 to 1995, and his term included two major events in Taiwan-US relations.
In May 1994, then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) made a stopover in Honolulu and the US government refused to allow him to leave a military airfield for a meeting with the local community, angering Lee and members of US Congress, who later pressured the White House to allow Lee to visit his alma mater, Cornell University in New York state.
Bellocchi was the highest-ranking US official to welcome Lee to Cornell in June 1995, but Beijing used the visit — as well as Taiwan’s first democratic presidential elections scheduled for the following year — to ratchet up tensions in the Taiwan Strait with missile tests that summer.
Following his retirement in December 1995, Bellocchi served as a special adviser to the Liberty Times Group and wrote many opinion pieces for the Taipei Times and its sister newspaper, the Chinese-language Liberty Times.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
LIKE-MINDED COUNTRIES: Despite the threats from outside, Taiwan and Lithuania thrived and developed their economies, former president Tsai Ing-wen said Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday thanked Lithuania for its support of Taiwan, saying that both countries are united as partners in defending democracy. Speaking at a reception organized by the Lithuania-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group welcoming her on her first visit to the Baltic state, Tsai said that while she was president from 2016 to last year, many Lithuanian “friends” visited Taiwan. “And I told myself I have to be here. I am very happy that I am here, a wonderful country and wonderful people,” Tsai said. Taiwan and Lithuania are in similar situations as both are neighbors to authoritarian countries, she
Taiwanese indie band Sunset Rollercoaster and South Korean outfit Hyukoh collectively received the most nominations at this year’s Golden Melody Awards, earning a total of seven nods from the jury on Wednesday. The bands collaborated on their 2024 album AAA, which received nominations for best band, best album producer, best album design and best vocal album recording. “Young Man,” a single from the album, earned nominations for song of the year and best music video, while another track, “Antenna,” also received a best music video nomination. Late Hong Kong-American singer Khalil Fong (方大同) was named the jury award winner for his 2024 album
RSS