The U.S. is considering letting Taiwan president-elect Ma Ying-jeou visit before his inauguration in May, the top U.S. official on Taiwan affairs said, in a trip which could anger China.

Taiwan’s media have been speculating ever since Ma won a landslide victory in the presidential election last weekend whether or when he would go to the U.S. ahead of taking office on May 20.

“All I can say about that is it’s being considered. It’s being discussed, and when there is a decision you will all know,” said Raymond Burghardt, the Washington-based chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, which handles U.S. ties with Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic links.

“It’s an important subject which would certainly involve inter-agency discussion in Washington.” When asked who in the U.S. government would be responsible for making that decision, he declined further comment.

Previous trips by senior Taiwanese officials have infuriated China, which claims the self-ruled, democratic island as its own and opposes any form of contact between its leaders and foreign governments.

Current President Chen Shui-bian has had limited contact with senior U.S. officials. The U.S. switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but it is obliged by the Taiwan Relations Act to help the island defend itself.

China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war. Beijing has vowed to bring the island under Chinese rule, by force if necessary.