One of the world’s most prestigious literary prizes has been dragged into a diplomatic spat between China and Taiwan after it caved in to pressure from Beijing to change the nationality of a Taiwanese nominee on its website.

The Man Booker International Prize said on Friday that it had changed the nationality of Professor Wu Ming-yi, 46, one of 13 authors on the 2018 longlist, from “Taiwan” to “Taiwan, China” after it had received a complaint from the Chinese embassy in London.

China claims the island democracy as its own territory, which will be eventually be reunited with the mainland - by force if necessary - and Beijing lobbies relentlessly to exclude Taiwan from global forums and undermine its legitimacy as its own nation.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s population of 23 million operate their own government, currency, military and foreign policy and the majority of its citizens identify as Taiwanese.

Professor Wu, who was nominated for this year’s prize for his novel The Stolen Bicycle, a book about the Taiwan’s 20th-century history, counts himself among their numbers.

On Thursday he publicly criticised the decision by the Man Booker Foundation to change his nationality.