Chinese economic pressure has reduced the number of Taiwan's formal diplomatic allies to just 12, mainly small island nations in the South Pacific and Caribbean.
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Taiwan’s foreign minister has alleged that China is using money and other inducements to persuade developing countries to align with its position on the self-governing island but claimed that such tactics are losing their effectiveness,
Lin Chia-lung told reporters that China’s goal is to persuade these nations to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan and stand with Beijing on issues it says prove Taiwan is part of China.
Beijing regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and one that must be brought back under the mainland's control, by force if necessary.
However, Lin offered no proof to back up his claims and there has been no immediate reaction from Beijing.
The minister said that key to that argument is a 1971 UN resolution that handed the China seat at the Security Council to Beijing, effectively kicking out Chiang Kai-shek's representatives who had held it even after fleeing to Taiwan when the Communists took over China in 1949.
The resolution says nothing about self-governing Taiwan's representation, but China and its allies have been using it as proof that there is only one China of which Taiwan is an indivisible part.
Lin also alleged that in developing nations, "China is using cheap construction" of projects from stadiums to railway lines to win the countries over.
"We must not let China have what it wants in terms of using legal warfare to make the Taiwan issue its domestic issue," Lin said, adding that Taiwan needs to harness the support from the United States and the European Union in defying Beijing.
Dwindling diplomatic allies
Chinese economic pressure has reduced the number of Taiwan's formal diplomatic allies to just 12, mainly small island nations in the South Pacific and Caribbean.
Taiwan also lost allies from among Central American countries in recent years.
In deference to Beijing, the US maintains only unofficial relations with Taipei, but remains its chief economic backer and source of weaponry to defend itself from China's repeated threats to invade the island.
Meanwhile, Chinese diplomatic pressure, often won through gifts to poorer nations, has kept Taiwan out of the United Nations and most other international forums, Lin claimed.
China refuses to deal with Taiwan's pro-independence government and has been pressing its diplomatic campaign to isolate the island.
In February, the South Pacific country of Cook Islands signed a largely secret deal with China to boost cooperation on matters such as mining seabed minerals.
It provoked a rare diplomatic clash with the Cook Island's chief benefactor, New Zealand, and protests at home.
That came after the Solomon Islands switched ties from Taiwan to China and signed a secret security arrangement with Beijing, despite considerable opposition from political opponents and parts of the public at home.
Most recently, Somalia has said it will cease accepting visitors or transit passengers with Taiwanese passports.
South Africa has demanded Taiwan move its unofficial representative office from the capital Pretoria to the city of Cape Town.