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ARATS chief visits widow of late former SEF chairman

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-03 21:06

TAIPEI  -- The Chinese mainland's chief negotiator on Taiwan affairs, Chen Yunlin, visited Koo Yen Cho-yun, the widow of Koo Chen-fu, former chairman of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), here on Monday afternoon.

"It was regrettable that Wang Daohan, the former president of the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, did not visit Taiwan" when Wang and Koo were leading the talks across the Strait in the 1990s, said Koo.

Chen's visit had fulfilled her husband's wish and she was very happy to see that, she said.

Her husband, who died in 2005, cared deeply about peaceful development across the Strait, she said. "Both Wang and he had high expectations for cross-Strait relations but [the relationship] did not move forward since their meeting in Shanghai in 1998.

"Chen's current visit showed that cross-Strait relations pulled through a winter and welcomed the spring," she said.

She believed that the SEF and the Association, known as ARATS, could reach a mutually beneficial result during the coming talks.

Chen visited on the day he arrived in Taiwan for the ARATS-SEF talks.

Founded in 1991 and 1990, respectively, ARATS and SEF are authorized by the mainland and Taiwan to handle cross-Strait civilian exchanges. However, negotiations were suspended for almost 10 years until June, when Chen and Chiang held their first meeting in Beijing.

"Wang and Koo worked all their lives for peaceful development between the two sides and understanding between compatriots across the Strait," Chen said. "People will remember them forever."

Wang also died in 2005.

"Today, SEF chairman Chiang Pin-kung and I realized the long-term wish of our predecessors. We will carry on their cause and try our best to work for the peaceful development across the Strait," he said.

Chen also invited Koo Yen Cho-yun to visit the mainland again.

Chiang was present during the visit.