The legitimation of private enterprise in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) through the 1980s reforms stimulated a rapid growth in private companies ranging from individual household enterprises to large businesses to foreign invested joint ventures and wholly-owned firms. Simultaneously, a number of business associations were established, usually by the party-state, and with the dual aims of assistance and regulation. The latter have attracted the attention of a number of scholars (White 1993, Pearson 1994, Nevitt 1996, Unger 1996) interested in their roles vis-à-vis their clientele whether they represent state or socialist corporatism, or whether they are, in Minxin Pei’s phrase, the ‘embryonic cells’ of civil society (1998:315). A related question which has attracted scholarly attention is whether the growth of the market economy in China has or will signal political reform and democratization. This chapter examines the activities of the Taiwan Business Association (taishanghui; TBA) in the PRC and will argue that, in contrast to other business associations, it can be said to contribute to and, paradoxically, to be an element in, civil society in China.