Suspected heart attack kills ex-Xinhua official

Former senior Xinhua official Wong Man-fong died of a suspected heart attack at his home yesterday.

Wong, aged 69, was found unconscious by his wife, and medical staff pronounced him dead at his Chai Wan flat after midnight.

Wong was the former head of the Taiwan Affairs Office and deputy secretary-general of Xinhua, now called the Beijing Liaison Office.

The father of three had been admitted to hospital for heart disease three times and had undergone two operations to enlarge his coronary arteries.

Wong retired in 1992 after 43 years with Xinhua. He was a political commentator and a columnist specialising in cross-strait affairs. He was part of the five-strong team formed by late leader Deng Xiaoping in 1982 to lay down policies for the handover.

Two months before the July 1997 handover, Wong admitted at a forum that an agreement had been reached between the mainland and triads in Hong Kong before the signing of the Sino-British Declaration in 1984. 'I told them that if they did not disrupt Hong Kong's stability, we would not stop them from making money,' he recalled of his meeting with triad leaders.