The funeral of Wang Daohan, president of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), will be held today in Shanghai Longhua Funeral House.

Some of the top officials are expected to attend to bid Wang farewell.

He died in Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital on December 24, aged 90.

His death coincided with the one-year anniversary of Koo Chen-fu's death in Taiwan, according to Chinese lunar calendar.

Koo, chairman of the Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF), and Wang in his role as president of ARATS made a milestone negotiation in Singapore in 1993, setting up the basis for any future dialogues between the two organizations.

The groups reached a consensus that both would give their own oral statements on the view that "both sides across the Straits adhere to the one-China principle." This was later widely known as the '92 Consensus.

Wang and Koo reached agreements on economy, technology and cultural communications between both sides of the Taiwan Straits. The two maintained a very close friendship through the years, sharing the same love for traditional Chinese culture, especially Peking Opera. Koo used to send videos of himself singing Peking Opera to Wang.

In 1998, Koo came to Shanghai and held the second round of negotiations with Wang. "Two sides of the Straits don't have to go to a third place to exchange idea. It (the meeting) was a great encouragement for (further enhancing) the cross-Straits communications," the then Kuomintang President Lien Chan commented on the 1998 negotiations.

Having worked on promoting cross-Straits communications for years, Wang had a life-long regret of not visiting Taiwan himself.

He Pengnian, board chairman of Shanghai Airlines, recalled that when the airline was founded in 1985, Wang, the mayor of the time picked a symbol of a red crane on white background for its planes, in the hope that Shanghai Airlines could achieve non-stop flights to Taiwan.

Last January, when Shanghai Airlines was included among the mainland airline companies to launch chartered flights to Taiwan during the Spring Festival, Wang had his secretary contact various institutions about the flight schedules, sending words to Shanghai Airlines that he wished the company to carry out the first flight.

His last days

Wang had been in poor health and hospitalized for nearly a year before he passed away. According to a member of staff from Ruijin Hospital, Wang was suffering from pancreas cancer before, but his death was mainly caused by old age. "He left in peace," a worker close to Wang said.

In October, when a friend visited him, Wang said with a smile: "I still have two months." His health situation had deteriorated earlier this year, but in May, Wang was able to meet two party leaders from Taiwan, first the Kuomintang Chairman Lien Chan, and then the People First Party Chairman James Soong.

Even though he was weak, he insisted on having his hair dyed especially for the meetings, and to meet Lien in Jinjiang Hotel instead of Ruijin Hospital. Only six days later, he appeared again in Hongqiao Guest House, meeting Soong. For both meetings he insisted on standing up to hand gifts to the guests himself.

People working close to him prepared Chinese paintings as presents for the pair, partly for their light weights. The gift Lien prepared for Wang, however, was a glass sculpture. This made the workers a little nervous, taking the piece from Wang as soon as he received it.

Wang was widely known for his love for reading. Only three days before his death, he called his secretary, asking for books about Chinese linguistics, the European Renaissance, banking, finance and latest developments in the Chinese intellectual world. The secretary recalled that Wang was very clear in mind at that time, and three months before that, he asked for books on advanced mathematics.

"He was very widely read, and active in thinking," recalled a worker close to him. Many of his colleagues were often impressed by Wang's grace and manners. "We were all impressed by the scholars' style of both," recalled Jiang Bimiao, a reporter with Shanghai Radio Station, who covered the 1993 Wang-Koo meeting. "Both were deeply influenced by traditional Chinese values. And they respected other people's work and feelings."

Wang used to live in Lane 11 on Wanping Lu in Shanghai, alongside with many other retired senior government officials. Wang was among the few of them that the janitor could recognize.

"He was our old mayor, and was close to the public when he was in office," said the janitor. "He was often in shirts, with pale skin, giving people the impression of a scholar."

(China Daily December 30, 2005)