New group in China says to help Taiwan investors

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's first national-level Taiwan chamber of commerce formally opened on Monday to help give investors from the island greater legal protection, officials said, largely steering clear of politics.

"Taiwan businesses are all over mainland China," said chamber head Chang Han-wen at a ceremony in Beijing's monolithic Great Hall of the People. "Taiwan business people and their families are already in every strata of society."

The chamber aims to help resolve business disputes and defend the rights and interests of thousands of Taiwan investors who have poured about $100 billion into China since the 1980s, lured by a common language and culture and by low labor costs.

But it has come under harsh criticism from independence leaning politicians in Taipei, who view the chamber as a Beijing front for winning hearts and minds in democratic Taiwan, claimed by China but run separately since 1949.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said last week it hoped the new group would stick to its stated aim and avoid politics.

Chang, who runs a hiking gear company in the southern province of Guangdong, said he had already talked about the chamber and its role with the Taiwan agency which negotiates with China in the absence of formal ties.

"Our association has been communicating with the Straits Exchange Foundation. I went there myself. They are perfectly clear about why we are forming such an organization. It's all positive. I don't see a problem here," Chang told reporters.

But many Taiwan businessmen at the ceremony were unwilling to talk about the potential political meaning of the new body.

"There's nothing the Taiwan government can do about it," said Runny Su, who also works in Guangdong. He declined further comment.