BEIJING, Feb. 1 -- The Chinese mainland's top negotiator with Taiwan is to send senior representatives to his counterpart's funeral in Taipei.

The announcement came one day after the historic first non-stop cross-Straits flights in over 55 years.

    Wang Daohan, who heads the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, planned to send three representatives to the funeral of Koo Chen-fu, the former chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, who died earlier this month.

    The visit has been confirmed by Johnnason Liu, Vice Chairman of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council.

    The mainland officials, whp will act as Wang Daohan's "personal representatives", will depart from Shanghai on Tuesday and leave after the funeral on Wednesday.

    The visit will be the first since the late 1990s, when high-level Chinese officials visited Taiwan.

    A spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council says there will be no formal contacts between the two groups during their visit.

    Wang Daohan had planned to visit Taiwan in 1999, but scrapped the plan after former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui infuriated Beijing by redefining ties as "special state-to-state" relations.

    Koo, a prominent Taiwan business tycoon, died of cancer on January 3rd at the age of 87.

    It was thanks to Koo that the mainland and Taiwan agreed to their own interpretations of the "one China" principle, in what is known as the 1992 consensus, a move that spawned talks across the Taiwan Straits.

    (Source: CRIENGLISH.com)