Taiwan president Ching-te has been forced to cancel his Eswatini visit after three countries along the flight route withdrew permission for him to fly over their territories amid pressure from China

Security concerns aside, just the optics of a head of state taking a 90 hrs/4 days round-trip flight (excluding actual stays and visits) for.......eswatini is probably not that great. Just looks a tad bit desperate you know?

He's the president! surely he could claim economy **plus** on expenses.

China has been on the path to forcibly take over Taiwan for over a decade

the power vacuum in africa the US left?

Flying to the UAE is not a great idea right now

Mauritius, Seychelles and Madagascar.

China has threatened them with war if Taiwan drops their claim over mainland China.

Taiwan cannot renounce it claims over mainland, as that would be the de facto recognition of China and Taiwan as separate country, and would be treated by PRC as a declaration of independence. Taiwan is forced by China to maintain the charade.

No sane country will shoot them down. But it's still an invasion, a gesture of bad faith and entitlement. This will make future efforts to build relationships more difficult, and things are already difficult as they are.

Yes, you are right, sorry, I should have read the full article. Still the situation is somewhat complex. The three countries would face Chinas wrath if they let him through and the Taiwanese president would still be in violation of their respective airspaces if you just went. Maybe the could just redirect around Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius.

For context this happened after Haiti genocided the white remaining men, womens and childrens on the island, after Haitian leaders promised they wouldn't. And THEN they asked France for independence recognition. France thus demanded a high price. The debt was bought by american banks decades later. It was finally reimbursed shortly after WWII. Back then Haiti still had a higher GDP than the Dominican Republic it share the island with. The same Dominican Republic which Haiti conquered for a while in the 19th century and submitted to racist policies, because Haitians are blacks while Dominicans are hispanic metiszo. Now the Dominican republic is the stable and richer one even thought the divergence happened after the haitian reimbursed their debt. So the picture isn't as black and white as it seem when you listen to a certain portayal of historical events from people who tend to systematically search "how can I depict western white people as the worst". Colonisation and slavery done by France was disgusting. And Haiti isn't a completely innocent country either.

The US helped because the US still had slavery when Haiti got independence.

Ah yes, France. The absolute champions of independence from unjust rule and democracy, if you’re a white country.

Florida was a swing state 25 years ago. It's no longer a swing state.

*After* the US placed nukes pointed at Moscow in Turkey and *after* the US tried to invade Cuba.

Usa has 800 military bases around the world. The next country with the most foreign military bases is Russia with 14. The United States have participated in or started most of the wars in the world in the last 80 years.  Only Americans think that the USA is not a global threat to peace and stability. 

How is this justification? Pointing out that two assholes do a****** things doesn't make either one not an a******.

That's geopolitics. Countries don't have friends, they have interests.

Lol Taiwan isn't innocent. That's why they support an authoritarian monarchy.

Western countries in general. You can criticize your government all you want generally.

you should start complaining now that trump is suppressing free speech

well, my propaganda is better than your propaganda so suk it /s

> The funny thing is the Chinese young population is highly educated and easily travel out of the country to see what's it like. Many go abroad to study or just travel around Asia. Small correction, in absolute amounts this is true. But relative to their massive population? If you grow up in rural China you're not even free to move everywhere within the country.