'Wang Daohan' (), (March
1915 –
December 24,
2005) was the former president of the
Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS).
Wang was born in the town
Jiashan in
China's
Anhui Province in
1915 and joined the
Communist Party of China in
1938. During his early career within the government of the
People's Republic of China, he focused on trade and investment issues. In
1965 he was worked as deputy minister of the State Commission for Foreign Economic Relations with Foreign Countries and in
1979 he was appointed vice-chair of the State Foreign Investment Commission and vice-chair of the State Import-Export Commission. Later Wang came to greater prominence when, after a year as vice-mayor, he was made mayor of
Shanghai in
1981. As mayor, Wang contributed to the success of
Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms by actively encouraging foreign investment and joint ventures. When he retired in
1985, Wang convinced Party officials to name his protegé
Jiang Zemin as successor.
On
16 December 1991 Wang was named president of ARATS, a semi-official organization created to correspond with the
Taiwan-based
Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). The following year Wang and SEF Chairman
Koo Chen-fu held preliminary talks in
Hong Kong which resulted in the so-called "
1992 Consensus" and facilitated negotiations of practical matters. The content and the existence of this "
1992 Consensus" is still widely disputed. In April
1993, Koo and Wang met in Singapore to hold the first formal discussions between Taipei and Beijing since
1949. A second round of talks followed in
1998, in Shanghai, but no further talks have taken place since. Beijing called off talks in
1999, after
Republic of China President
Lee Teng-hui proposed his
two-states theory. Wang died in
Shanghai on the morning of
December 24,
2005.
References
★
"Economic Policy after the 16th Party Congress"
★ ''
Same Bed, Different Dreams''
★
AsiaWeek "Who's Who"