Koo Chen-fu

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==