Last week, Beijing deployed a new tactic for diplomatically isolating Taiwan. On 21 April, President Lai Ching-te postponed a trip to Eswatini, Taiwan’s last remaining diplomatic partner in Africa, after three countries abruptly revoked permission for his plane to transit their airspace. The three countries – Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles – are believed to have acted at China’s request.

Beijing has long sought to interfere with the international travel of Taiwan’s president. Just last August, Lai cancelled a trip to Latin America after the United States denied him permission to transit through New York, apparently over fears the stopover could derail US-China trade negotiations. Beijing routinely pressures Washington to restrict such transits. In both 2006 and 2007, for example, the George W. Bush administration denied then-president Chen Shui-bian permission to stop in the continental US en route to Latin America. Chen’s trip went ahead, only his transit through the US was affected.

This latest incident, however, is unique in two ways. First, it was aimed primarily at obstructing a visit to a formal diplomatic partner, not preventing engagement with an unofficial partner like the United States. Second, it succeeded at blocking the visit altogether. The sudden denial of airspace by multiple countries left Taiwan with insufficient time to chart an alternative route and secure new permissions, forcing Lai to cancel the trip.

Read the full article at the Lowy Institute.

Header image: Taiwan President Lai Ching-te and King of Eswatini, Mswati III. By 中華民國總統府