After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the number of "friends" in Taiwan plummeted from 52 to 38 within a year.
In 1971, the mainland replaced Taiwan's seat in the United Nations, and in the following years, Taiwan's "countries with diplomatic relations" quickly disappeared, and by 1978 there were only 22 left.
During the Lee Teng-hui period of the Chinese Kuomintang (1988-2000), taking advantage of Taiwan's economic superiority at that time, it launched an offensive in Latin America, Africa, and Oceania, and developed several "countries with diplomatic relations," and the Taiwan authorities once had 30 "countries with diplomatic relations."
During the Chen Shui-bian period of the DPP (2000-2008), the number of countries with "diplomatic relations" such as Costa Rica was reduced to 23.
During the Ma Ying-jeou period of the Chinese Kuomintang (2008-2015), the Chinese Kuomintang practiced "living road diplomacy", and it was only in 2013 that the Gambia announced that it had "severed diplomatic relations" with the Taiwan authorities, but the mainland only established diplomatic relations with it in March 2016.
Since Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, nine countries have severed "diplomatic relations" with the Taiwan authorities: Sao Tome and Principe (2016), Panama (2017), Dominica (2018), Burkina Faso (2018), El Salvador (2018), Solomon Islands (2019), Kiribati (2019), Nicaragua (2021), and Honduras (2023).
At present, there are only 13 so-called "countries with diplomatic relations" in Taiwan, namely Oceania (4): Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, Marshall Islands; Central America (6): Belize, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Guatemala, Haiti, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis;
South America (1): Paraguay; Africa (1): Eswatini; Europe (1): Vatican.
