Taipei - The United States sent a ranking official to Taiwan Thursday to meet with Taiwan's president-elect Ma Ying-jeou and discuss US-Taiwan ties. Raymond F Burghardt, chairman of trustees of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), arrived in Taipei Thursday night for a three-day visit.
"I have come to congratulate the Taiwan people on holding another democratic election. I will meet with Taiwan leaders, including President Chen Shui-bian and president-elect Ma Ying-jeou," he said after arriving at Taoyuan International Airport.
The institute said Burghardt, the highest ranking US official in charge of ties with Taiwan, would meet with Chen, Ma, and political and business leaders in Taiwan.
But as Taiwan has just held its presidential election and Ma is eager to visit the US before his May 20 inauguration, analysts expect Burghardt to discuss with Ma Taiwan-US ties, Taiwan-China ties, US arms sales to Taiwan and whether Ma can visit the US.
Granting Ma a visa requires a lot of diplomacy and the tacit approval of Beijing because the US has diplomatic ties with China and cannot receive Taiwan's leaders.
But visiting the US is important for Ma since the US is Taiwan's top arms supplier and close trading partner.
The US also acts as a mediator in Taipei-Beijing ties, warning Beijing not to attack Taiwan and warning Taiwan not to provoke Beijing with moves towards formal independence.
In his telephone conversation with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday, US President George W Bush told Hu that Taiwan's presidential election provided a "fresh opportunity" for Beijing and Taipei to resolve differences.
After splitting at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Taipei and Beijing held their first dialogue in 1993 in Singapore.
Since then, they conducted a string of talks under the dialogue's framework to discuss legal disputes, fishing quarrels and the repatriation of Chinese job seekers and plane hijackers.
China halted the talks in 1995 to protest former president Lee Teng-hui's advocation of Taiwan independence on his trip to the US.
After Taiwan's opposition Chinese Nationalist Party or Kuomintang (KMT) won the presidential election on Saturday, the party called on China to resume talks to ease tension in the Taiwan Strait, but Beijing has not replied yet.
