President Lai’s Overseas Trip: China-Taiwan Confrontation Threatens Freedom of Flight

Editorial

15:53 JST, May 6, 2026

In an effort to isolate Taiwan in the international community, China has pressured other countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan and to refrain from cooperating with Taiwan’s activities.

Amid ongoing China-Taiwan tensions, concerns have inevitably been raised over a Taiwan aircraft not being allowed to fly over some African countries, thereby threatening the freedom of flight guaranteed under international law.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te visited Eswatini in southern Africa from May 2 to 5. His visit had originally been scheduled for late April, but it was canceled as Taiwan said that China interfered with it.

Lai’s trip took an unusual turn. The president had been scheduled to board his presidential plane in April, but three African countries — Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar — revoked their flight permits, leading to the announcement of a postponement of his trip just one day before departure.

Regarding the revocation of their flight permits for the presidential plane, the three countries reportedly did not disclose the reasons to Taiwan. However, the Taiwan side claimed that the reason was “intense pressure from the authorities in China, including economic coercion” on the three countries.

Subsequently, as the deputy prime minister of Eswatini visited Taiwan on the king’s private jet, Lai boarded this aircraft for both the outbound and return flights to make the visit possible. Eswatini is the only country in Africa that maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson has condemned Lai’s visit in a statement, saying that he “sneaked onto a foreign plane to ‘smuggle’ himself out of the island.” China has “expressed appreciation” for the three countries’ actions not to permit the flights of Taiwanese aircraft.

Basically, the airspace that Lai’s presidential plane was attempting to traverse was over international waters surrounding the three countries. The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea recognizes the “freedom of overflight” over the high seas.

Meanwhile, the International Civil Aviation Organization, a specialized U.N. agency, has established “flight information regions” around the airspace of member states to ensure flight safety over the high seas, asking countries to provide weather information and altitude instructions for safe flight.

In this instance, the three countries effectively refused to carry out these air traffic services. If countries responsible for flight information regions continue to revoke their flight permits without providing a legitimate reason for impeding flight safety, freedom of flight will become impossible to maintain worldwide.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara stated regarding aviation administration, “It’s important for all relevant countries to operate with transparency in order to ensure the common interests of the international community, namely aviation safety.” Japan should strongly oppose any moves to use air traffic as a weapon.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, May 6, 2026)