American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt yesterday reassured President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) that US policy on Taiwan remained unchanged, including its position on Taiwan’s sovereignty and commitment to help Taiwan meet its defense needs.

Burghardt’s visit comes a week after US President Barack Obama visited China. Since the US’ Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) was not mentioned in the US-China joint statement issued during Obama’s visit, the Democratic Progressive Party had expressed concern that the US might have backtracked on its commitment to Taiwan.

US beef imports and US President Barack Obama’s recent trip to China were key points in the discussion yesterday between American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the DPP said.

Briefing reporters, DPP Director of International Affairs Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said that during the 70-minute meeting, Tsai told Burghardt the DPP was concerned about the US’ stance on Taiwan as a US-China joint statement released during Obama’s trip had not mentioned the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), the backbone of the Taiwan-US relationship since the two countries severed ties 30 years ago.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and several Penghu residents yesterday accused the government and judicial authorities of threatening the island’s voters to deter them from casting ballots in the Dec. 5 local elections.

At a press conference at the Legislative Yuan, several registered Penghu voters living in Taiwan proper showed a letter issued jointly by the Penghu Prosecutors’ Office, the Penghu County Police Department and the Investigation Bureau’s Penghu office advising them not to vote in the local elections if they have a household registration in Penghu but do not live in the county normally.