The message from the government official was simple: endorse China or face the consequences.

It was delivered in one of the regular phone calls that Surangel Whipps, the president of the tiny Pacific state of Palau, had with the Chinese ambassador to the nearby Federated States of Micronesia.

Mr Whipps was only a candidate for the presidency at the time and was told to immediately sever Palau’s diplomatic relations with Taiwan if he won.

Failure to switch his nation’s recognition to Beijing, the ambassador stressed, could mean the tens of thousands of Chinese tourists, who were bringing much-needed revenue into Palau’s tourism sector, going somewhere else.

“His words were, ‘You’re a businessman, you understand the potential of the Chinese market, how many tourists you can have’,” Mr Whipps told The Telegraph at his office in the Palauan capital of Koror.

“I let him know that we were keen to have visitors from everywhere and that we are friends to everyone, but the conversation quickly turned to him saying that Palau needs to join the rest of the world by stopping ‘illegal activities’ by recognising Taiwan,” he said.

Mr Whipps diplomatically replied that Palau would decide its own foreign policy. Within months of his election victory, Chinese tourists stopped arriving.

In response to the Palauan president highlighting the tourism issue earlier this year, China’s state-run media People’s Daily described his comments as “malicious accusations” intended to smear and discredit China.