Renowned economist Cheng Siwei began a 10-day visit to Taiwan yesterday, 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.