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Koo Chen-fu

Taiwanese businessman and diplomat (1917–2005)

Field	Value
name	Koo Chen-fu
native_name
image	19690120辜振甫.jpg
caption	Koo Chen-fu in 1969
office1	Chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation
deputy1	Johnnason Liu
term_start1	21 November 1990
term_end1	3 January 2005
predecessor1	Position established
successor1	Johnnason Liu (acting)
Chang Chun-hsiung
birth_date
birth_place	Taihoku Chō, Japanese Taiwan
death_date
death_place	Taipei, Taiwan
father	Koo Hsien-jung
children
relatives	Jeffrey Koo Sr. (nephew)
Yan Fu (Grandfather-in-law)
occupation
citizenship	Empire of Japan (before 1945)
Republic of China (after 1945)
education	National Taiwan University (LLB)
University of Tokyo (LLM)

Chang Chun-hsiung Yan Fu (Grandfather-in-law) Republic of China (after 1945) University of Tokyo (LLM) Koo Chen-fu (, 6 January 1917 – 3 January 2005), also known as C.F. Koo, was a Taiwanese businessman, diplomat, and film producer. He led the Koos Group of companies from 1940 until his death. As a chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), Koo arranged the first direct talks between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China since 1949 and served as Taiwan's negotiator in both the 1993 and 1998 Wang-Koo summit.

He was also a film producer and produced a number of Taiwanese films between 1973 and 1982, such as Love, Love, Love (1974), Eight Hundred Heroes (1975), Heroes of the Eastern Skies (1977), The Coldest Winter in Peking (1981), and Attack Force Z (1982).

Early life and education

Born in northern Taiwan into a wealthy business family headed by his father Koo Hsien-jung. Koo attended Taihoku Imperial University (now National Taiwan University). He inherited a substantial fortune upon his father’s death in 1937. Koo graduated in 1940 with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) and pursued a graduate degree in Japan at Tokyo Imperial University.

Koo was jailed in 1946 for 19 months on treason charges for helping the Empire of Japan. After his release, he took refuge in Hong Kong and returned to Taiwan in 1949 to marry his wife, Cecilia Koo.

Koo, alongside his nephew Jeffrey Koo Sr., founded the Koos Group during the 20th century. He remained focused on running Koos Group as well as on his political career that led to his elevation to the central committee of Kuomintang.

Political career

Koo was a member of the Kuomintang (KMT) but had complex political connections. His half-brother, Koo Kwang-ming, was a leading figure in the Taiwan independence movement. Despite this, Koo maintained a strong relationship with the ROC government and served as Presidential Advisor from 1991 until his death in 2005.

SEF chairmanship

Koo was the founding chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). On 16 December 1991, a little over ten months after the establishment of the SEF, the authorities of People's Republic of China (PRC) set up the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), with Wang Daohan as its chairman. The following year Koo and Wang held preliminary talks in Hong Kong that resulted in the so-called "1992 Consensus" and facilitated negotiations of practical matters. However, the content and the existence of this "1992 consensus" is widely disputed. In 2001, Koo publicly affirmed that the meeting did not result in a consensus on the issue of "one-China". In April 1993, Koo and Wang met in Singapore to hold the first formal discussions between Taipei and Beijing since 1949. The two met again in Shanghai in 1998. On 18 October 1998, Koo met Jiang Zemin, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, in Beijing, in what was then the highest-level talks yet held between the two sides. The talks were called off by Beijing in 1999 after ROC President Lee Teng-hui proposed his two-states theory.

Death

Koo Chen-fu died of renal cancer on the morning of 3 January 2005 at the age of 87.

Legacy

The Koo family remains one of Taiwan’s most influential business dynasties. In recognition of his contributions, the National Taiwan University Social Sciences Library was renamed the Koo Chen-Fu Memorial Library.

References

{{Hkmdb name. 30881
Yeh, Lindy. (April 15, 2002). "The Koo family: a century in Taiwan". Taipei Times.
(22 July 2018). "Taiwan in Time: Sedition or a groundless verdict?". Taipei Times.
Reyes, Alejandro. (October 3, 1998). "Tycoon and statesman: Koo has excelled in many roles". Asiaweek.
(January 4, 2005). "Koo one of the nation's most important figures". Taipei Times.
"President Chen Pays Tribute To Koo Chen-fu".
(26 November 1990). "Exchange 'Link' May Break Down Contact 'Wall'; ROC will Allow". Taiwan Today.
(October 18, 1998). "Gaps remain between China and Taiwan". BBC News.
(January 4, 2005). "Koo Chen-fu, 88, dies of kidney cancer". Taipei Times.
"Koo Chen-Fu Memorial Library at National Taiwan University".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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