The policy has been widely interpreted within the federal government as limiting Australia from supporting Taiwan’s participation in key international forums and preventing senior politicians, such as sitting prime ministers, from meeting Taiwanese officials.

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This interpretation has rankled Taiwanese officials, including Taiwan’s chief representative in Australia, who last month pleaded with local officials not to be “lazy” by falling into the trap of uncritically accepting Beijing’s claims about Taiwan’s territorial status.

“This appraisal should challenge the justice of denying the people of Taiwan, who have expressed a clear preference for freedom through the success of their representative democracy, greater certainty over their autonomy,” Morrison said.

He said the admission of Taiwan as a non-state into the Comprehensive and Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, Interpol and the World Health Organisation would “be a great start”, enhancing its practical autonomy “without crossing the threshold of national statehood”.

He also suggested it should be allowed adjunct non-member status in dialogues with multilateral forums, including the Quadrilateral security dialogue or “Quad”, a grouping of the United States, Japan, India and Australia.

“This means positively broadening the scope and nature of our unofficial relations with Taiwan, both bilaterally and multilaterally in non-political, humanitarian, scientific and trade arenas, within a modernised One China framework,” he said.

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Support for declaring formal independence in Taiwan has been growing, according to polls by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation, which reported 48.9 per cent of Taiwanese favoured independence in September compared to 26.9 per cent for maintaining the “status quo” and 11.8 per cent support unification with China.

However, no major Taiwanese political party has proposed pursuing formal independence because it would likely trigger a military response from Beijing.

In her national day speech on Tuesday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen called for peaceful coexistence with China.

“Since this is a time we can now face the world with confidence and resolve, we can also be calm and self-assured in ­facing China, creating conditions for peaceful co-existence and future developments across the Taiwan Strait,” she said.

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