The Chinese Civic Center is sponsored by the Beijing Government. Much like the Taiwanese Heritage Society and the Institute of Chinese Culture(the later backed by the Taipei government), they maintain a nice library and have occasional exhibitions, festival activities, ESL classes, ping pong and even the rare political activities(Xinhua reports the center«participating in anti-[Taiwanese] Independence, pro unification activities and raising money for Chinese and Asian disaster relief»). A friendly atmosphere, though.