Delegates to attend Koo funeral in Taiwan
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-01-31 06:32

The representatives of the president of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits will visit Taiwan to attend Koo Chen-fu's funeral, a spokesman at the Taiwan Affairs Office under the State Council said in Beijing yesterday.

The funeral is the only official business scheduled for the representatives during the trip.

Sun Yafu (right), ARATS vice-president, shakes hands with a delegate from Taiwan in this April 2, 2001 file photo. Sun, together with ARATS Secretary-General Li Yafei, will fly to Taiwan to attend Koo Chen-fu's funeral as representatives from ARATS president Wang Daohan. [newsphoto]

Wang Daohan, president of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), has decided to send ARATS Vice-President Sun Yafu and Secretary-General Li Yafei to attend the funeral of Chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in Taiwan Koo Chen-fu on Wang's behalf.

Koo died of renal failure in Taipei on January 3, at 89.

During their visit to Taiwan, Sun Yafu and Li Yafei will act as personal representatives of ARATS President Wang to Koo's funeral and Sun and Li will not touch on any issue pertaining to the contact between ARATS and SEF or other issues concerning cross-Straits relations, the spokesman said.

Wang has said he wished to send representatives to the funeral of his Taiwanese counterpart Koo.

In an earlier interview with the press, Wang said that in the past month since Koo's death, compatriots across the Taiwan Straits have praised Koo for his contribution to the development of cross-Straits relations and his honouring of the consensus reached in 1992 by ARATS and SEF that "both sides across the Taiwan Straits must stick to the one-China principle."

"I have cherished the memories of my old friend and wished to attend his funeral," Wang said. "However, due to my old age, I am too weak to go there."

In April 1993, Koo and Wang held the first ever high-level, non-governmental talks between Taiwan and the mainland in Singapore. The talks were known as the Wang-Koo meeting.

In 1998 they held a second round of talks in Shanghai.

Wang said he hopes Sun and Li will fulfill his wish with the help of Koo's family.

Sun and Li will leave Shanghai for Taipei on February 1 and return on February 2, the spokesman said.

In another development, Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, told the press in Beijing: "We have cherished the memories of Mr Koo. We wish to pay our respects to him."

Close

Today's Top News     Top China News
Millions of Iraqis vote; attacks kill 35         Eight students die from meningitis         Vice-Premier: China salutes more investment         Delegates to attend Koo funeral in Taiwan         US-led forces could leave Iraq in 18 months         Flights to Taiwan first in decades	Vice-Premier: China salutes more investment       A small but significant step forward       State strengthening agricultural capacity growth       Cross-Straits airliners fly into history       Delegates to attend Koo funeral in Taiwan       Dalian becomes N. China biggest oil transit port