The State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office has created a department to tackle complaints from Taiwanese businesspeople on the mainland, in what amounts to Beijing's latest move to win the hearts of the island's people.
Office spokesman Li Weiyi said in Beijing yesterday the Complaint and Co-ordination Bureau, in place since July 26, was responsible for handling matters related to the rights of Taiwanese businesspeople based on the mainland.
'The main functions of the bureau are to protect the legal rights of Taiwanese compatriots on the mainland, co-ordinate the handling of major Taiwanese-invested projects and deal with matters related to Taiwanese people's letters and visits [to government offices],' Mr Li said.
Bureau officials have met representatives of Taiwan's opposition parties - the Kuomintang, the People First Party and the New Party - since it was set up. It has also organised a few seminars with Taiwanese businesspeople to gauge their views on the mainland's investment environment.
The bureau is billed as the result of mainland visits earlier this year by leaders of Taiwan's three opposition parties - a move by Beijing to isolate the island's pro-independence president, Chen Shui-bian.
During the historic trips, the opposition leaders reached agreements with the Communist Party to work together to promote relations across the Taiwan Strait in the absence of official contacts between the two rival governments.
