SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) – Taiwan’s vice president kicked off a Latin American tour Wednesday in the Dominican Republic, an ally rapidly increasing its economic and political ties with the island’s diplomatic rival, China.

Vice President Annette Lu’s three-country trip aims to counter a Chinese push that bore fruit last month in Costa Rica, where the government announced it was switching its diplomatic recognition to Beijing in hopes of attracting more trade with China.

Taiwan and communist China split amid civil war in 1949. China refuses to have diplomatic ties with nations that recognize Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province it plans to eventually unify with the mainland.

Costa Rica’s defection left the island with only 24 diplomatic partners – many of them poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Ms. Lu, who arrived Tuesday night, planned to meet with Dominican President Leonel Fernandez and discuss ongoing negotiations for a trade agreement. She and her 63-member delegation are also to visit Paraguay and Guatemala before leaving the region on July 11.

“The trip is to reinforce our bilateral relations,” said Tomas Chen, a spokesman for the Taiwanese Embassy.

China has also been courting Latin American leaders in a bid to win their support and weaken Taiwan’s claims of international legitimacy.

The Dominican Republic has been playing both sides of the political divide, developing extensive ties with Taiwan and China without making any long-term commitments in their feud.

It has pledged to maintain official relations with Taiwan through at least 2008, but Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso told a television program in April 2006 that it could also establish diplomatic relations with Beijing if it were in the country’s best interest.

Taiwan is helping to build an information technology campus on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, while a Chinese company is slated to build a much-needed coal power plant in the Caribbean country’s northwest.

Trade with China has quadrupled over the last three years, powered by sales of construction equipment and electronics. Last year, the Dominican Republic had trade with China totaling $490 million – nearly three times the amount with Taiwan.

Last year, officials from the Dominican ruling party also took a 12-day tour of the mainland with counterparts from the Chinese Communist Party.

Beijing’s former representative in the Dominican Republic, Cai Wei Quan, said last month as he ended his term that it was “just a matter of time” before Santo Domingo makes the switch.

The high-water mark for Taiwan’s diplomatic profile came in 1969, when it had full relations with 67 countries including the United States and much of western Europe.

Things started to go badly for the island’s diplomatic ties in 1971, when the United Nations shifted its recognition from Taipei to Beijing. By 1979 – when America pulled its embassy out of the Taiwanese capital – only 22 countries were left.