Former top Taiwan negotiator Chiang Pin-kung died in Taipei on Monday at 85.

Chiang was rushed to a hospital Saturday after collapsing at a restaurant, and later died of multiple organ failure, the Taipei Times reported.

Chiang steered the resumption of high-level cross-strait contact from 2008 to 2012 as chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation, the organization set up by Taiwan to handle business with the Chinese mainland.

Chiang led a historic official visit by Kuomintang representatives to Beijing in 2005, the first since the end of the Chinese revolution in 1949.

Former leader Ma Ying-jeou reportedly visited Chiang in the hospital Monday to say goodbye.