Honduras, one of only 14 nations that still recognised Taipei, said it switched sides after Taiwan refused to increase financial aid to the developing country.

"I think it's in the interest of people to be able to engage in the world. Taiwan has a lot to offer, including, for example, in international institutions, where remarkably talented people have tremendous experience and expertise," Blinken said in an interview late Thursday in Niger.

"Countries have to decide for themselves whether and how they want to benefit from that."

Blinken said that the United States has offered its "support to people on Taiwan" but that it also stood by its own "One-China "policy of recognising only Beijing.

"Countries have to make their their own sovereign decisions about their foreign policies," he said. "We leave that to them."

The United States switched recognition in 1979 to Beijing but supplies weapons for the defence of Taiwan, a self-governing democracy claimed by Beijing which has not ruled out seizing it by force.

Taiwan officially calls itself the Republic of China, a legacy of the mainland's nationalists who fled to the island after losing the civil war to the communists.