Chinese central government departments and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait held a ceremony in Beijing yesterday to mourn the death of Association President Wang Daohan.

Officials of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, as well as association staff, expressed their condolences by making triple bows to the portrait of Wang Daohan, who died on Saturday in Shanghai of illness. He was 90.

A funeral will be held in Shanghai.

Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, and Li Bingcai, deputy president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, said Chinese leaders have been concerned about Wang's failing health. He died of an unspecified disease.

Officials of the TAOSC and ARATS have visited Wang in Shanghai several times, Chen and Li said.

Wang was still concerned about the situation across the strait when he was ill. Just five days ago, he urged visiting officials to try to resume talks and consultation within the framework of the 1992 Consensus Across the Taiwan Strait, maintaining the interests of Taiwan compatriots, said Chen.

Wang had devoted himself to Chinese liberation and construction undertakings, made great contributions in promoting cross-strait relations and the common interests of people on both sides, Chen said.

Chen and Li said that Wang never wavered from the one-China policy and opposed the splitting and divisive activities of "Taiwan independence." He made all efforts to promote cross-strait development.

Chen said the first high-level non-governmental talks across the strait were held by Wang and Koo Chen-fu, chairman of the Taiwan-based Strait Exchange Foundation in Singapore 1993.