There were no heavy suitcases aboard the borrowed jet that secretly carried President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan toward Africa. Instead, to save fuel for a secret, 15,000-mile journey to get around restricted airspace, his entourage brought only carry-on bags.
The stripped-back, high-stakes mission, revealed by Taiwanese officials who had been on the flight, and who showed documents to back up their account of what happened, was aimed at outmaneuvering Beijing’s latest attempts to isolate Taiwan.
China had been gloating earlier after it dealt an embarrassing blow to the president of Beijing’s rival, Taiwan, and his government’s efforts to preserve the island’s standing on the global stage.
President Lai Ching-te of Taiwan had been invited by the tiny southern African kingdom of Eswatini to attend celebrations in April marking King Mswati III’s 40 years on the throne. Eswatini is the only African country that still maintains official diplomatic relations with Taiwan and not China.
Mr. Lai was forced to call off the trip after three other countries rescinded permits for him to fly through their airspace to reach Eswatini. The three nations did so apparently because of pressure from Beijing, which says Taiwan is its territory and has no rightful place in diplomacy.
Then, in a twist, Mr. Lai announced in early May: “I’ve arrived.”
He had reached Eswatini on a covert flight across the Indian Ocean that appeared to have caught Beijing by surprise. The Chinese government likened Mr. Lai’s actions to a rat running across a street. Mr. Lai celebrated his trip as a plucky victory against China’s campaign to marginalize Taiwan.
This account of Mr. Lai’s covert journey to Africa and back draws on interviews with two officials who had accompanied him on the trip. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security and diplomatic details and to share related documents, such as the flight permits that were revoked.
The entourage traveled a total of 15,815 miles on a borrowed plane, flying nearly as far from any airport as safety rules usually allowed, all to slip through and around the airspaces of unwelcoming countries, the officials said.
The high-altitude cat-and-mouse game between China and Mr. Lai reflects the new, more intense phase of Beijing’s campaign to erase Taiwan’s leaders from the global map. That campaign is reflected in the Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s agenda in his summit with President Trump in Beijing. Mr. Xi told Mr. Trump that mishandling Chinese concerns on Taiwan could push relations between Beijing and Washington into an “extremely dangerous” place.
For years, China has used its economic clout to try to compel governments, companies and organizations to treat Taiwan as China’s territory. But this was the first time that it has tried to sever the Taiwanese leader’s access to international flight paths, the Taiwanese officials said.
“This is another front in the ever escalating ‘lawfare’ and other pressure campaigns on Taiwan,” said Julian Ku, a professor at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, referring to the deployment of laws and rules to try to pressure adversaries. “This tactic shows that Beijing is not going to back down from seeking out new legal mechanisms to harass and delegitimize Lai.”
Even as Mr. Lai joined in celebrations with the king, his advisers were wrestling with their next challenge: How to get him safely home now that the Chinese government was alerted to his arrival in the country.
A Routine Visit, Thwarted
Mr. Lai had originally planned to leave for Eswatini on April 22 for the celebrations and talks on strengthening ties between the two sides.
Eswatini, formerly called Swaziland, is one of just a dozen states in the world with official ties with Taiwan. In the past decade, China has used its growing influence to nearly halve the number of countries that recognize Taiwan, giving Eswatini outsize importance in the island’s diplomacy.
Mr. Lai’s visit would “demonstrate Taiwan’s determination and commitment to engaging with the world,” his office had said when it first announced his trip.
When Taiwanese presidents visited Eswatini before, obtaining permits to fly through other countries’ airspace to get there was routine. International airspace is governed as a mosaic of national jurisdictions, where countries hold the power to grant or deny passage, though permission to fly through is rarely denied.
Taiwan had obtained overflight permits from 16 countries for Mr. Lai’s trip, according to Mr. Lai’s security officials, who showed them to The New York Times.
But before Mr. Lai was due to fly to Eswatini, word began to reach his office that the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar, which together control a bloc of airspace out into the Indian Ocean, were suggesting that Mr. Lai reconsider his plans.
Then on April 17, the countries notified Taiwan that they were rescinding their permits.
After failing to persuade the three countries to reverse their decisions, Mr. Lai’s office convened a news conference to announce his trip was off. They described it as a “postponement.” But there seemed no easy way for Mr. Lai to make the trip.
Mauritius and Madagascar did not respond to requests for comment on their decisions. The Seychelles referred to an earlier statement defending its decision as in line with its “one-China policy” and “non-recognition of Taiwan as a State.”
Taiwanese officials had no doubt that Beijing had brought about their U-turn.
“The actual reason is the strong pressure exerted by the Chinese authorities, including economic coercion,” Pan Men-an, a senior aide to Mr. Lai, told reporters at the news briefing announcing that the trip had to be called off.
The Chinese foreign ministry praised Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar as acting in line with the “one-China principle.” That is China’s view that Taiwan is a part of its territory, and the Communist Party-led government in Beijing is the sole legitimate authority over that one country.
This was an embarrassing setback for Mr. Lai, who is not given to making compromises and acutely sensitive about asserting Taiwan’s separate status. Last year, Mr. Lai was forced to abandon a planned trip to Latin America after the Trump administration denied his request to stop over in New York.
But his team had a plan.
A Stealth Mission on a Royal Jet
Mr. Lai’s team did not have much time. They needed to find a plane and a route to Eswatini that could get around the airspace over the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar, and then also bring Mr. Lai safely home.
They approached Eswatini’s government about borrowing the king’s royal jet, which had originally belonged to a Taiwanese airline. The Airbus A340 plane had four engines, meaning that it could skirt around blocked airspace if needed by flying deep across the Indian Ocean, far from any airport. Such a maneuver would ordinarily be forbidden to the two-engine passenger aircraft that Taiwan usually charters for presidential trips abroad.
The deputy prime minister of Eswatini, Thulisile Dladla, visited Taiwan on the royal jet. Her visit was described as aimed at bolstering relations.
In the early hours of May 2, the royal jet flew back to Eswatini. Mr. Lai was on it.
His trip was a secret to almost everyone in Taiwan, including inside Mr. Lai’s government, the officials said. He was accompanied by about two dozen Taiwanese officials.
Mr. Lai’s staff and technicians had prepared the plane for an unusually long journey. To reduce the plane’s weight and save fuel, the passengers were allowed only carry-on baggage. But meals during the flight of over 14 hours remained “standard business class,” including fried chicken and rice porridge, said one official.
Security advisers used satellite phones to report to Taipei every two hours. The plane flew through the airspace of Madagascar and Mauritius; neither country appeared to be aware of who was onboard the plane, according to the Taiwanese officials.
They timed their arrival in Eswatini for the morning, so that Mr. Lai could go straight into his diplomatic activities. King Mswati III made sure that the events included repeat performances of anniversary celebrations that Mr. Lai had missed, including a fireworks display.
Mr. Lai’s flight back to Taiwan was even longer. To avoid any trouble, the royal plane flew around the air zones of Seychelles, Mauritius, and Madagascar, tracing an arc southeast across the Indian Ocean. If the plane had been fully loaded, the length of the journey may have brought fuel levels uncomfortably low. But there was more than enough.
In line with the security protocol for presidential flights, four Taiwanese military jets flew up to escort Mr. Lai’s plane as it approached Taiwan. But no threats emerged, and Mr. Lai landed safely at Taoyuan International Airport near Taipei.
The political reaction from Beijing was unusually intense. Chinese officials deeply dislike Mr. Lai and his Democratic Progressive Party, which rejects Beijing’s claims to sovereignty over Taiwan. The Chinese foreign ministry described Mr. Lai’s trip as a “farcical ‘illegal exit’.”
John Eligon contributed reporting from Johannesburg.
