Former lawmaker latest to visit Taiwan

By Xie Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-03 10:00

Renowned economist Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, began a 10-day visit to Taiwan Tuesday, becoming the latest high-ranking mainland official to visit the island since cross-Straits ties warmed last year.

The 74-year-old will make a speech at a seminar on cross-Straits cooperation in combating the global recession, and sweep the tombs of his parents, who died in Taiwan.

Cheng's family moved to Taiwan in 1949 after the civil war. He moved back to the mainland when he was 16.

His father Cheng Shewo founded Shih Hsih University in Taipei in 1955 and died in Taiwan in 1991.

Cheng Siwei visited Taiwan twice to sweep the tomb and visit relatives but was subsequently refused entry because of his key role in the mainland government.

Since last June, when the mainland and Taiwan restarted talks following a nine-year hiatus, people-to-people contacts have become frequent across the Straits.

Last November, Chen Yunlin, president of the mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits led a delegation to Taiwan for the highest-level semi-official cross-Straits talks with his counterpart Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of the island's Straits Exchange Foundation.

Taiwan allowed senior mainland officials to visit the island at the end of last year.

Since then, Huang Mengfu, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Xu Jialu, former vice-chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, Peng Peiyun, president of the Red Cross Society of China, and Zhang Kehui, former vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, have visited the island.