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 (US$1,500 for every Grenadian). 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 ==