Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said his state visit to Eswatini showed that Taipei would not be deterred by Chinese pressure, after returning from a trip that had initially been disrupted when three African and Indian Ocean states revoked overflight permission for his aircraft. Taiwan says Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar withdrew the permits last month under pressure from Beijing, forcing the original journey to be postponed.
Lai eventually arrived in Eswatini on May 2 for a three-day visit to Taiwan’s only remaining diplomatic ally in Africa, where he held talks on economic, agricultural, cultural and educational cooperation. On returning to Taipei, he described mutual visits between leaders as “as natural as visiting friends” and said the trip had demonstrated “the unwavering determination of the Taiwanese people to engage with the world.”
China, which claims Taiwan as its territory and opposes any official foreign engagement with Taipei, did not explicitly confirm Taiwan’s allegation of coercion, but said it “highly appreciated” the decisions of the three countries that had denied transit. Beijing also denounced Lai’s Eswatini visit, while Taiwan argued that the episode reflected a widening Chinese campaign to squeeze its international space.
Eswatini is one of only 12 countries that still maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, making the trip symbolically important as Beijing intensifies efforts to isolate the island. Lai used the moment to stress Taiwan’s global identity, declaring that “Taiwan belongs to the world” and that its people “will not back down because of suppression.”
