Luxury Italian sports-car brand Maserati has cut sponsorship ties with Taiwan’s top film awards, the latest international brand to bow to pressure from China on political issues.

Maserati said on its official account on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like online platform, that it had pulled out of sponsoring the upcoming Golden Horse Awards, often dubbed the “Chinese Oscars”.

The car company directly linked its decision to Beijing’s stance on Taiwan, a self-ruled de facto independent nation for the last seven decades that China views as its own territory that must one day be seized, by force if necessary.

“Maserati has always respected China’s territorial integrity, its history and culture while firmly upholding the ‘one China’ principle,” the firm said, using Beijing’s official phrase for classifying Taiwan as part of communist China.

It added the initial sponsorship deal was struck by Maserati’s local office in Taiwan and did not represent the brand’s “official stance”.

Beijing has been ramping up diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan ever since president Tsai Ing-wen was elected in 2016 because her party refuses to recognise that the island is part of “one China”.

As punishment, it cut official communications, stepped up military exercises and poached half a dozen diplomatic allies.

Pressure is building once more as Taiwan heads towards new elections in January with Tsai seeking to defeat an opponent who favours much warmer ties with China.