The United States has thrown its support behind Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s visit to Eswatini, calling Taiwan a “trusted and capable partner” whose international relationships benefit countries around the world, as China condemned the trip in unusually sharp terms.
Lai arrived in the southern African kingdom on Saturday, travelling on an Eswatini government aircraft after China pressured three Indian Ocean states into denying overflight permission for his plane, forcing the cancellation of an earlier visit planned for April.
“Taiwan is a trusted and capable partner of the United States and many others, and its relationships around the world provide significant benefits to the citizens of those countries, including Eswatini,” a State Department spokesperson said, adding that such travel was “routine and should not be politicised.”
Eswatini, a landlocked kingdom of around 1.3 million people, is one of only 12 countries worldwide that maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and the only one on a continent where China holds deep economic influence.
At a banquet held in Lai’s honour on Sunday, King Mswati III offered a pointed defence of Taiwan’s international standing. “When we go with the spirit of the U.N., which says the U.N. is not going to leave no one behind, there are those who are still left behind — 23 million people of Taiwan still feel that they are left behind,” he said, in footage released by Lai’s office.
Taiwan is excluded from the United Nations due to Chinese objections.
Beijing, which regards democratically governed Taiwan as part of its territory with no right to conduct state-to-state relations, condemned Lai’s trip and said he was “like a rat scurrying across the street.”
The visit comes at a sensitive moment in Sino-American relations. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday that Taiwan was “the biggest point of risk” for relations between the two powers, ahead of a summit between the Chinese and American leaders scheduled later this month in Beijing.
Lai’s predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, made similar trips to Eswatini in 2018 and 2023. Lai has maintained that only Taiwan’s people can determine their future and that the island has every right to engage with the international community.
(Reuters)
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