A ceremony will be held in Beijing on Monday to mark the formal establishment of the Friendship Association for Enterprises Invested in by Taiwan Compatriots, China’s policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office said.

“The association will aim to help resolve business disputes and protect the rights of Taiwan investors,” Chang Han-wen, a Taiwan investor in China’s booming southern province of Guangdong, told Reuters by telephone.

Taiwan businessmen have set up more than 100 city-level chambers of commerce across China since the 1990s, but have been banned from forming a national-level chamber until now because China’s ruling Communist Party frowns on freedom of association.

Trade, investment and tourism between China and Taiwan have blossomed since the late 1980s, but are routed mostly through Hong Kong. Taiwan bans direct air and shipping links with China.

Thousands of Taiwan investors have poured up to $100 billion into China, lured by a common language and culture as well as low labor costs and close proximity.

Lien Chan, honorary chairman of Taiwan’s main opposition Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, is to attend the 3rd Cross-Strait Economic and Cultural Forum in Beijing April 28-29 and meet Chinese President Hu Jintao.

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