Min Zhiting, president of the China Taoist Association, died in Beijing Saturday. He was 80.

Min was born in Nanzhao County, Henan Province, in 1924.

He was a member of the Standing Committee of the Ninth and Tenth National Committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Min, a noted patriotic religious figure, was regarded as a close friend of the Communist Party of China.
 
(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2004)