Taiwan’s Lai visits Eswatini as China keeps tariff exclusion

Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te arrived in Eswatini on Saturday after a planned April 22 to 26 visit was delayed when Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar revoked overflight permits for his aircraft. Taiwanese officials said the clearances were withdrawn under “strong pressure from the Chinese authorities,” including economic coercion, turning a diplomatic trip into a display of how Beijing can shape Taiwan’s movement far beyond its own territory.

The visit carried outsized weight for Taipei. Eswatini is Taiwan’s only diplomatic ally in Africa and one of just 12 countries worldwide that still maintain formal ties with the island. Taiwan and Eswatini established relations in 1968, and Lai timed the trip to coincide with King Mswati III’s 40th anniversary on the throne and his 58th birthday, underscoring the symbolic value Taiwan places on preserving one of its last formal partnerships.

Lai said the journey was made possible after careful arrangements by his diplomatic and national security teams. He said Taiwan would “never be deterred by external pressures” and pledged to deepen ties with Eswatini through closer economic, agricultural, cultural and educational cooperation. The message was aimed as much at Beijing as at Mbabane: Taiwan has spent years defending a shrinking circle of official allies, while China continues to use its larger diplomatic and commercial reach to isolate Taipei.

The pressure on Eswatini comes as China widened its economic embrace of the continent. On May 1, Beijing extended zero-tariff access to imports from 53 of Africa’s 54 countries, leaving out only Eswatini because it recognizes Taiwan. That exclusion makes the kingdom an exception inside a broader Chinese trade strategy that now covers nearly the entire continent and leaves Taiwan’s last African partner outside the fold.

Eswatini, a landlocked kingdom between Mozambique and South Africa, has a population of about 1.3 million and has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986. Beijing called Lai’s visit a political stunt. For Taipei, the trip was more than a ceremony: it was a reminder that diplomatic recognition, airline access and trade policy are increasingly intertwined in Africa, where China’s leverage can reach even the flight path of Taiwan’s president.