Taiwan’s foreign minister on Wednesday alleged that China is using cash and other inducements to win over developing countries to its position on the self-governing island but claimed that such tactics are losing their effectiveness,

Chinese FM spokesperson Mao Ning . A fishing vessel named Hongcaitou No.6 from the Taiwan island was recently detained by a Japanese patrol vessel on the grounds of violating fish

It is "arrogant and ignorant" to call Taiwan a country and its future can only be decided by China's 1.4 billion people, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday in a rebuff to the democratically-governed island's foreign minister.

Taiwanese authorities have arrested two Chinese nationals who sailed over in a small boat and attempted to land on an island. It is the third incident this month in which Chinese nationals appear to have reached Taiwan by boat, stoking security concerns.

An invasion of the island democracy is "no longer distant or theoretical," retired General Charles Flynn told lawmakers.

China has no right to decide whether or not Taiwan is a country given it chooses its own government, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Wednesday, adding that he would be happy to shake the hand of his Chinese opposite number in friendship.

Whether all this comes in time remains to be seen. Military analysts fear that China could invade Taiwan as early as 2027. If war comes, Taiwan’s hope and expectation is that the United States will enter the fray. Wargames point to costly fighting and losses if that happens, including the specter of potential escalation to nuclear war.

China has long sought to intimidate Taiwan with its massive navy, air force and the world's largest standing army, but it's mere dinghies that are now causing the most consternation.

JOHN CULVER is a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings. He served for 35 years as a Central Intelligence Agency officer, including as National Intelligence Officer for East Asia from 2015 to 2018.