Behind Lai Ching-te's Cancelled Trip: Why the Tide Has Turned

Lai Ching-te, leader of the Taiwan authorities, had a trip planned. He was supposed to fly to Eswatini — and the trip has now been canceled. Three countries — Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar — revoked overflight permits for the Taiwan authorities' charter flight.

On the same day, China's Foreign Ministry responded by noting that, apart from Eswatini, all 53 African countries have diplomatic relations with China, and have repeatedly stated their firm commitment to the one-China principle.

What the Taiwan authorities have been doing for years is what you'd call "visit diplomacy" — constantly flying Lai or his predecessors out to their shrinking list of so-called allies, staging photo ops, signing agreements, trying to manufacture a sense of international legitimacy. His stopover in the US was rejected by the Trump administration last year. This kind of political theater is designed for a domestic audience as much as anything else.

What you're seeing is that the operating space for the Taiwan authorities keeps getting smaller. The so-called "ally" list keeps shrinking. More and more countries recognize that there is but one China, and choose to stand on the right side of history. For the DPP authorities, even getting a charter flight off the ground has now become a problem.