The State Department has dispatched American Institute in Taiwan chairman Raymond Burghardt to Taipei from his station in Washington, D.C. to brief Republic of China in-exile leader Ma Ying-jeou.
Burghardt’s trip to Taiwan, his 10th since his appointment as AIT chairman, follows closely the state visit of Hu Jintao, head of the People’s Republic of China, to Washington. The AIT is America’s defacto embassy in Taiwan since the United States does not recognize the sovereignty of the ROC over Taiwan.