Taiwan said China was lobbying to downgrade the island's status at the World Trade Organisation, adding another twist to the latest diplomatic tug-of-war that began over the Sars epidemic.
Taiwan officials said Beijing had de-manded that Taiwan's permanent mission status at the WTO be downgraded to an office - similar to that of Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China.
Beijing and Taipei have fought bitterly over international recognition at all levels since the Nationalists fled to Taiwan after losing the mainland to the Communists in 1949.
Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian held a top-level national security meeting to discuss the WTO issue, the latest setback to ties that had been warming as business links grew across the Taiwan Strait.
"China's suppressions against us come wave after wave. There have been so many examples recently that I almost lost count," said a senior official at the Presidential Office, who declined to be identified.
"Public resentment against China is growing day by day. I don't think anyone can expect an improvement in cross-Strait ties anytime soon," the official said by telephone.
Asked if Beijing was pressuring the WTO regarding Taiwan's status, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue did not directly answer the question but accused Taiwan of using the WTO to further its own political agenda.
"On the issue of how to address their WTO delegates, they have many times, in fact, behaved in a way to create one China and one Taiwan, or two China's. We believe this behaviour disturbs the WTO's normal activities," Ms Zhang told reporters.
Beijing views the self-governing island as a breakaway province that must be eventually reunified and has threatened to attack if it declares independence.
Before the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) many had expressed hopes that Taiwan's decades-old ban on direct trade and full transport links might end. But sentiment soured when Taiwan accused China of blocking the World Health Organisation (WHO) from helping Taiwan combat the deadly Sars virus, which has killed 76 people on the island.
Some in Taiwan, including the president's son-in-law, referred to Sars as "Chinese pneumonia".
President Chen himself called Beijing "barbaric" and "shameless" for blocking Taiwan's entry into the WH, which Taipei said was critical in its battle against the virus.
Taiwan is also smarting over an incident at the Miss Universe pageant in Panama where Taiwan's contestant had to change her title to "Miss Chinese Taipei" from "Miss Taiwan".
Beijing, in turn, called Taiwan rude for refusing an offer of Chinese face masks to help it to fight Sars.