Former vice chairman of Chinese KMT party dies

TAIPEI - Chiang Pin-kung, former vice chairman of the Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party, passed away Monday in Taipei, the KMT said in a statement.

Chiang was also the former chairman of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and former vice president of the Taiwan-based council of the summit for entrepreneurs across the Taiwan Strait.

Born in 1932, he was elected vice chairman of the KMT party and SEF chairman in 2003 and 2008 respectively.

Founded in 1991 and 1990, the Chinese mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) and SEF are authorized by the mainland and Taiwan to handle cross-Strait affairs.

Chiang led a KMT delegation to visit the mainland in March 2005, and in June 2008 he led an SEF delegation to hold talks with ARATS in the mainland.

Heads of the ARATS and SEF conducted eight talks and signed 18 agreements to develop cross-Strait relations when Chiang served as SEF chairman.

He resigned from the post as SEF chairman in September 2012.