International recognition of Taiwan

Following the ROC central government’s retreat since 1949, the effective territories of the Republic of China has been limited to Taiwan and its associated islands, and lost control of mainland China due to its defeat in the Chinese Civil War by the Chinese Communist Party, which established the People's Republic of China that same year. The division marked the start of cross-strait relations and the emergence of two rival governments on opposite sides of the Taiwan Strait, each claiming to be the sole legitimate authority over both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. Initially excluded from the United Nations in favor of the ROC, the PRC on mainland has gradually gained increased recognition and assumed China’s UN seat in 1971 through the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758. Since then, the international recognition of the ROC has greatly lessened.
Today, the ROC has formal diplomatic relations with twelve nations but maintains unofficial bilateral ties with other countries through its representative offices, and membership in international organizations as a non-state entity. According to a Lowy Institute tally in January 2025, about 74 percent of the UN member states explicitly endorse the PRC's position that Taiwan is part of China; however, 23 of those states do not endorse the one-China principle, and others merely acknowledge or respect rather than recognize the PRC position.

History

Because of anti-communist sentiment at the start of the Cold War, the Republic of China was initially recognized as the sole legitimate government of China by the United Nations and most Western nations. On 9 January 1950, the Israeli government extended recognition to the People's Republic of China. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 505, passed on 1 February 1952, considered the CCP to be rebels against the Republic of China.
However, the 1970s saw a switch in diplomatic recognition from the ROC to the PRC. On 25 October 1971, Resolution 2758 was passed by the UN General Assembly, which "decides to restore all its rights to the People's Republic of China and to recognize the representatives of its Government as the only legitimate representatives of China to the United Nations, and to expel forthwith the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek from the place which they unlawfully occupy at the United Nations and in all the organizations related to it." Multiple attempts by the Republic of China to rejoin the UN, no longer to represent all of China but just the people of the territories it governs, have not made it past committee, largely due to diplomatic maneuvering by the PRC, which claims Resolution 2758 has settled the matter.
During the 1990s, there was a diplomatic tug-of-war in which the PRC and ROC attempted to outbid each other to obtain the diplomatic support of small nations. This struggle seems to have slowed as a result of the PRC's growing economic power and doubts in Taiwan as to whether this aid was actually in the Republic of China's interest. Several island nations in the mid-2000s changed their recognition between the two nations. In March 2004, Dominica switched recognition to the PRC in exchange for a large aid package. In late 2004, Vanuatu briefly switched recognition from Beijing to Taipei, followed by a return to its recognition of Beijing. On 20 January 2005, Grenada switched its recognition from Taipei to Beijing, in return for millions in aid. On 14 May 2005, Nauru announced the restoration of formal diplomatic relations with Taipei after a three-year hiatus, during which it briefly recognized the People's Republic of China.
On 26 October 2005, Senegal broke off relations with the Republic of China and established diplomatic contacts with Beijing. The following year, on 5 August 2006, Taipei ended relations with Chad when Chad established relations with Beijing. On 26 April 2007, Saint Lucia, which had previously severed ties with the Republic of China following a change of government in December 1996, announced the restoration of formal diplomatic relations with Taipei. On 7 June 2007, Costa Rica broke off diplomatic ties with the Republic of China in favor of the People's Republic of China. In January 2008, Malawi's foreign minister reported Malawi decided to cut diplomatic recognition of the Republic of China and recognize the People's Republic of China.
On 4 November 2013, the Government of the Gambia announced its break-up with Taiwan, but the Foreign Affairs Ministry of China denied any ties with this political movement, adding that they were not considering on building a relation with this African nation. After the 2016 Taiwanese presidential election, China announced in March that it had resumed diplomatic relations with Gambia. The latest countries to break off formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan were Burkina Faso on 24 May 2018, El Salvador on 21 August 2018, the Solomon Islands and Kiribati in September 2019, Nicaragua on 9 December 2021, Honduras on 26 March 2023, and Nauru on 15 January 2024.
As of at least 2024, the trend in East Asian governments is generally not to discuss the issue of Taiwan's political status. Academics Xinru Ma and David C. Kang write that when East Asian countries do so, "it is often to caution the United States from getting too far ahead of where even the Taiwanese themselves are."

Positions of states

Countries that have official diplomatic relations with the ROC

, the countries who maintain formal diplomatic relations with the ROC as the sole legitimate government of "China" are:

Country

Date

Membership

Guatemaladts|15 June 1933

Countries that have an ambiguous stance regarding Taiwan

Several countries have one China policies in which they, while not recognizing Taiwan as a country, acknowledge or take note rather than recognize the PRC position that Taiwan is part of China. Many of these countries retain an ambiguous stance on the political status of Taiwan, considering Taiwan's status as unsettled.

Country

Official position

Australiashow|Details|According to the December 1972 joint statement: "The Australian Government recognises the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China, acknowledges the position of the Chinese Government that Taiwan is a province of the People's Republic of China, and has decided to remove its official representation from Taiwan before 25 January 1973."

Official Australian government position: "The terms of our Joint Communiqué dictate the fundamental basis of Australia's one-China policy. The Australian Government does not recognise the ROC as a sovereign state and does not regard the authorities in Taiwan as having the status of a national government."

Countries that recognize Taiwan as a part of China

Countries that have no position

International organizations

Under continuing pressure from the PRC to bar any representation of the ROC that may imply statehood, international organizations have adopted different policies toward the issue of ROC's participation. In cases where almost all UN members or sovereign states participate, such as the World Health Organization, the ROC has been shut out. In others, it participates under other names, including Chinese Taipei and the "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kimmen and Matsu". After nine years of negotiations, members of the WTO completed the conditions on which to allow Taiwan admittance into the multilateral trade organization. At the end of 2011, Jeffery Bader, Assistant United States Trade Representative for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, led and finalized the final stages of Taiwan's accession to the WTO, which were approved by trade ministers in November in Doha, Qatar. The ISO 3166 directory of names of countries and territories registers Taiwan separately from and in addition to the People's Republic of China, but lists Taiwan as "Taiwan, Province of China" based on the name used by the UN under PRC pressure. In ISO 3166-2:CN, Taiwan is also coded CN-71 under China, thus making Taiwan part of China in ISO 3166-1 and ISO 3166-2 categories.
Naming issues surrounding Taiwan/ROC continue to be a contentious issue in non-governmental organizations such as the Lions Club, which faced considerable controversy naming its Taiwanese branch.