Shanghai Daily news

A group of Taiwan personages arrived in Shanghai on Thursday for the funeral service of Wang Daohan, the mainland's chief negotiator on Taiwan affairs, slated for Friday.
Wang, president of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), died of disease in this east China metropolis last Saturday, at the age of 90.
By 7 p.m. Thursday, those who had arrived in Shanghai included Yen Cho-yun, who is widow of Koo Chen-fu, the late counterpart of Wang in Taiwan, Chiu Cheyne, former secretary-general of the Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF), Wu Poh-hsiung, vice chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party, Chin Chin-sheng, secretary-general of the People First Party (PFP), and Yok Mu-ming, chairman of the New Party.
Among them were also representatives of the Hsin Tungmung Hui and the Alliance for the Reunification of China.
The funeral service of Wang is scheduled to be held at Longhua funeral parlor of Shanghai at 10:00 a.m. Friday. Senior officials of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China will be present at the funeral.
In accordance with the wish of Wang's family, family members of Koo Chen-fu, some SEF officials who participated in the landmark Wang-Koo meetings in 1993, and representatives of the KMT, PFP, New Party and the Alliance for the Reunification of China, shall attend the funeral.
Some of Wang's friends in Taiwan, Taiwan business people investing in the mainland, and heads of Taiwan enterprises associations in the mainland will also be present.
"Wang was a seasoned negotiator and he never spoke in an aggressive way," said Chiu Cheyne while recalling the Wang-Koo talks held in Singapore, the first ever high-level, non-governmental talks across the Straits.
Five years after the first Wang-Koo meeting, the two negotiators held their second talks in Shanghai and reached a four-point consensus, which included holding cross-Straits dialogue on political issues.
An official in charge of education in the People First Party, who had an opportunity to meet Wang in May this year, said he was impressed when he learnt that Wang was still reading some economic books about Taiwan despite his senility.
"He was a great person because he always kept a close eye on Taiwan affairs," said the official who would also attend Friday's funeral.