“The government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) finds [the Solomons’ Cabinet’s] decision extremely regrettable and strongly condemns it,” Wu said.

“The government hereby declares the termination of diplomatic relations with the Solomon Islands with immediate effect, the end of all bilateral cooperative projects, as well as the recall of the staff of its embassy, technical mission, and medical mission stationed in the Solomon Islands,” he said, adding the Taiwanese government also demanded that the Solomon Islands immediately recall its government personnel from Taiwan.

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Shortly before Wu’s announcement, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that the Solomon Island’s cabinet voted on Monday to drop ties with Taipei in favour of relations with Beijing. The agency said 27 members of the cabinet voted in favour of the diplomatic switch to Beijing, with none opposed, and six abstentions.

Slamming the Solomon Islands for betrayal of friendship and allegiance, Wu said the Pacific nation’s prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, had publicly stated that his country would refer to four reports from government agencies, as well as public opinion expressed by civil organisations, before coming to a final decision over the reassessment of the Solomons’ foreign relations with other countries, including Taiwan.

Sogavare and his cabinet, however, ultimately made the decision based on a “Bipartisan Task Force” report, which Wu criticised as “full of fabrications and blatant misinformation”.

“Prime Minister Sogavare has not only broken his own public promise, but also disregarded the fruits of the 36 years of cooperation between Taiwan and the Solomon Islands,” Wu said.

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Wu also slammed Beijing for resorting to “dollar diplomacy and false promises of large amounts of foreign assistance to buy off a small number of politicians, so as to ensure that the government of Solomon Islands adopted a resolution to terminate relations with Taiwan before China’s National Day on October 1”.

Taiwan and the mainland have been rivals since the end of a civil war in 1949. Relations improved when Ma Ying-jeou of the mainland-friendly Kuomintang was president between 2008 and 2016 and adopted a policy to engage Beijing. But cross-strait ties turned sour again after Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party became president in 2016 and refused to accept the “one-China principle”.

Beijing, which considers Taiwan a wayward province that must return to the mainland fold by force if necessary, has since suspended official exchanges with Taiwan and poached six of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, including the Solomons, in addition to staging a number of war games to put pressure on Taipei.

Wu said Beijing’s purpose was to diminish Taiwan’s international presence, hurt the Taiwanese people, and gradually suppress and eliminate Taiwan’s sovereignty.

“It is absolutely evident that China, through this case, deliberately seeks to influence Taiwan’s upcoming presidential and legislative elections,” he said.

Wu said his ministry had kept close contact and communication with the Solomons after it learned of the possible switch. Despite efforts by both Taiwan and the US to persuade the Solomons not to change recognition, the Solomons went ahead with its decision.

“For this, I offered my resignation to the president to take full responsibility for the switch,” he said. But in a statement on Monday, the presidential office asked him to stay on, saying Wu and the ministry had already done all they could to prevent it, and that Beijing was to blame rather than Wu.

Tsai also condemned both the Solomons and Beijing for the loss of an ally of 36 years.

Tsai also used the incident to lash out at Beijing for trying to force Taiwanese public to accept “one country, two systems” model, the constitutional framework in Hong Kong and proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in January as an option for the two sides to achieve unification after talks.

“I believe all the 23 million people in Taiwan would say impossible for an answer” to that proposal, Tsai said, adding all political parties in Taiwan shared the same position of rejecting model.

She said Taiwan would not give up its diplomacy and would continue to back Hong Kong over its campaign for general elections in the city.

The abrupt decision caught Taiwan off guard, coming on the same day as Taipei’s foreign vice-minister, Hsu Szu-Chien, arrived in the Solomons to make a last-ditch effort to save bilateral ties.

The move is a major blow to Taiwan, ahead of a critical election in January 2020 when Tsai will be seeking re-election.

Earlier on Monday, Alex Akwai, press secretary to Sogavare, said that he understood Hsu had landed in the country, but was unable to share further details, including whether he would meet Sogavare.

Akwai said he was also unable to confirm whether the government would formally make the diplomatic switch or when, adding: “Stay tuned.”

The US ambassador to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu told Taiwan’s CNA that the US government hoped the Solomon Islands would maintain the status quo, saying: “Taiwan has been an exceptional partner to the Solomon Islands.”

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Sogavare is expected to meet US Vice-President Mike Pence at the United Nations General Assembly later this month.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in early September that Beijing “stands ready to develop friendly and cooperative relations” with countries around the world, when asked about the Solomon Islands’ decision.

But Peter Kenilorea, chairman of the Solomon Islands parliament’s foreign relations committee, said in a statement on Sunday that he was “deeply concerned” that the decision was being rushed through so that the Pacific nation could take part in China’s 70th anniversary celebrations of its founding on October 1.

Kenilorea also warned about getting caught up in the geopolitics between the US and China. “This is an ominous sign of things to come in a relationship I have constantly stated that we as a nation, with our weak governance structures, struggling institutions, and structural handicaps, are not ready for a switch now,” he said. “To cut an existing tie with a partner is a serious matter.”