Overview
- Lai’s office postponed the April 22–26 Eswatini visit on Tuesday after Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar pulled overflight clearances hours before departure.
- Taipei said Beijing applied intense economic pressure to force the reversals, while Madagascar and Seychelles said they acted under the one‑China policy and their sovereign control of airspace.
- China denied using coercion and praised the three governments for upholding the one‑China principle in public statements from its Taiwan Affairs Office and Foreign Ministry.
- The U.S. State Department on Wednesday called the revocations an abuse of international civil aviation rules and said the countries misused Flight Information Regions, which are zones they manage only for safety, to block routine travel at China’s behest.
- Taiwan will send a special envoy to represent President Lai at the celebrations, in what officials and multiple reports described as the first time a Taiwanese president canceled a trip due to denied overflight, a precedent that could narrow Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic space.