Wang Daohan, president of the mainland-based Association for
Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, passed away in
Shanghai at 7 AM
(Beijing time) on Saturday.
Wang died of disease in the Shanghai Ruijin Hospital at the age
of 90.
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Wang, native of Jiashan, Anhui Province in east China, once
served as secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the
Communist Party of China (CPC), vice-mayor and mayor of Shanghai,
and adviser to the Shanghai Municipal People's Government.
He was a member of the former CPC Central Advisory Commission,
delegate to the 13th, 14th and 15th CPC National Congress, and
deputy to the 5th and 6th National People's Congress, or the
national legislature.
The Association for Relations Across Taiwan Straits was founded
in December 1991, and Wang took the presidency. In April 1993, Wang
and Koo Chen-fu, chairman of the Taiwan-based Strait Exchange
Foundation (SEF), held in Singapore the first ever high-level,
non-governmental talks across the Straits.
The talks were known as the Wang-Koo meeting.
In October 1998, they held the second talks in Shanghai and
reached a consensus on four points involving dialog across the
Straits on political issues.
Wang also served as professor of economics with many prestigious
universities including Beijing University, Fudan University and
Tongji University. Fond of reading, Wang had done considerable
research into politics, economics and management and had wide
interest in literature, history, music, arts and drama.
(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2005)
