Defying what Taipei described as a Chinese campaign to isolate the island diplomatically, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung touched down in the southern African kingdom of Eswatini as a special envoy, days after President Lai Ching-te was forced to abandon a visit there following a coordinated denial of airspace access across three Indian Ocean nations.
Lin posted a photograph on Facebook late Saturday showing him stepping off a private jet on arrival in the small kingdom, formerly known as Swaziland. He said his delegation “overcame all obstacles” to complete the journey, without elaborating on the route taken. “In that moment, I felt the deep friendship between Taiwan and Eswatini that transcends distance, and I became even more convinced that Taiwan will not be held back by authoritarian forces,” he wrote.
The visit comes after Taiwan accused the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar of unilaterally revoking overflight permits for the presidential aircraft, grounding Lai’s planned trip to Eswatini — one of only 12 countries in the world that maintain formal diplomatic relations with Taipei. It was the first time a Taiwanese president had been forced to cancel an entire foreign trip due to denied airspace access, and observers noted it appeared to signal a new Chinese strategy aimed at restricting Taiwan’s international engagement.
Beijing denied applying pressure on the three nations but nonetheless praised their decision to block the flight permissions — a response critics said amounted to an implicit acknowledgement of its role. China maintains that democratically governed Taiwan is one of its provinces and has no right to the trappings of a sovereign state, a position Taipei firmly rejects.
President Lai, addressing King Mswati III by video message on Sunday to mark the 40th anniversary of the monarch’s accession to the throne, struck a defiant tone. “Our 23 million people have the right to engage with the international community. The greater the external pressure we face, the more courage and resolve we have,” he said in English, asserting that the Republic of China — Taiwan’s formal name — is a “sovereign country” that “belongs to the world.”
The incident drew a swift international response. The United States criticised China’s actions, while the European Union, Britain, France and Germany also expressed concern — a rare display of coordinated Western pushback over Beijing’s efforts to shrink Taiwan’s already limited diplomatic space.
Eswatini remains Africa’s last absolute monarchy and one of Taiwan’s most steadfast allies on the continent, a relationship built over decades of development assistance and bilateral cooperation. Lin’s arrival, however symbolic, was widely seen in Taipei as a signal that Taiwan intends to defend those ties regardless of the pressure it faces.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah