The personal representatives of Wang Daohan, president of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), arrived in Taipei yesterday afternoon to attend the funeral of Koo Chen-fu, late chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) in Taiwan.

The two representatives are ARATS Vice-President Sun Yafu and Secretary-General Li Yafei. Both attended the well-known 1993 high-level non-governmental talks between Wang and Koo and met Koo on many other occasions.

Wang said earlier that he cherished the memories of his old friend Koo and wished to attend his funeral. "However, due to my old age I am too weak to go there. I would like to send Sun Yafu and Li Yafei to attend the funeral on my behalf."

In an earlier interview with the press, Wang said in the past month since Koo's death, compatriots across the Taiwan Straits have praised Koo's contribution to the growth of cross-Straits relations.

The spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said on Sunday that Sun and Li will act as Wang's personal representatives and won't touch on any cross-Straits issues.

Koo died of renal failure in Taipei on January 3 at age 89. He and Wang had helped to reach a landmark consensus in 1992 between ARATS and SEF that "both sides across the Taiwan Straits keep to the one-China principle."

In April 1993, Koo and Wang held in Singapore the first ever talks between Taiwan and the mainland.

(China Daily February 2, 2005)