TAIPEI, May 5 (Reuters) – Taiwan President Lai Ching-te will speak at the airport later on Tuesday on his return from Eswatini, his office said, having made a surprise trip there after his government blamed Chinese pressure for nixing earlier plans.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as part of its territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taiwan’s government strongly disputes, and Beijing has demanded countries stop any engagements with the island.
Lai arrived in the former Swaziland, one of just 12 countries with formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, on Saturday.
His government said China had forced three Indian Ocean states – the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar – to deny overflight permission for his aircraft when he had planned to originally go last month, for celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the accession of King Mswati III.
Lai later flew there on the king’s private A340.
An A340 left Eswatini on Monday and is currently heading to Taiwan, taking a circuitous route over the bottom part of the Indian Ocean then up over Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, according to flight tracking apps, although they did not identify whether the aircraft was the king’s.
China has ramped up its efforts to squeeze Taiwan’s international space, saying Lai is a “separatist” and the island merely a Chinese province with no right to the trappings of a state. Lai rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying Taiwan has a right to engage with the world.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
