{"id":27440,"date":"2026-05-03T05:11:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T09:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stingfm.com\/news\/taiwans-leader-a-rat-beijing\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T05:11:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T09:11:46","slug":"taiwans-leader-a-rat-beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stingfm.com\/news\/taiwans-leader-a-rat-beijing\/","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan\u2019s leader a \u2018rat\u2019 \u2013 Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The rebuke came after Lai Ching-te made a secret visit to Eswatini, the only African state which still recognizes the island as sovereign<\/strong><\/p>\n

China has compared Taiwan\u2019s President Lai Ching-te to a \u201crat crossing the street\u201d<\/em> after he secretly boarded an Eswatini government aircraft and flew to the small southern African kingdom on an unannounced state visit.<\/p>\n

The rebuke was issued by China\u2019s Taiwan Affairs Office on Saturday, which lashed out at Lai over the visit, which Beijing views as a direct challenge to the one-China principle. <\/p>\n

Lai\u2019s visit had originally been scheduled for late April, but was called off at the last minute after the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar revoked overflight permits for the Taiwanese leader\u2019s charter aircraft \u2013 a move Taipei blamed on Chinese pressure.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
Beijing offers economic boons to Taiwan<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Lai, however, did not ditch the plans for the visit and boarded an Eswatini government plane to complete the journey. Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is one of only 12 countries with formal diplomatic ties with Taipei. The landlocked nation of fewer than 1.3 million people is the island\u2019s sole remaining African ally.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s Taiwan Affairs Office branded Lai a \u201ctroublemaker\u201d<\/em> and accused him of abandoning the island\u2019s residents in the wake of a significant earthquake to fly to Eswatini.
<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLai Ching-te’s despicable actions, like a rat crossing the street, will inevitably be ridiculed by the international community… Lai Ching-te\u2019s disregard for the safety of the people and his wanton deception of the public will surely be spurned by the vast majority of Taiwanese compatriots. The so-called \u2018diplomatic achievements\u2019 that Lai Ching-te painstakingly fabricated are nothing but trickery and a laughing stock,\u201d<\/em> the body charged.<\/p>\n

Lai pushed back, writing on X that Taiwan \u201cwill never be deterred by external pressures,\u201d<\/em> adding that the island \u201cwill continue to engage with the world \u2013 no matter the challenges faced.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Taiwan\u2019s Mainland Affairs Council also hit back, branding Beijing\u2019s rebuke \u201cfishwife\u2019s gutter talk\u201d<\/em> which it said was \u201cboring in the extreme.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

China considers Taiwan a part of its sovereign territory. While Beijing has said it seeks peaceful reunification with the island, it signaled in 2022 that it \u201cwould not renounce the use of force\u201d<\/em> to accomplish this goal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rebuke came after Lai Ching-te made a secret visit to Eswatini, the only African state which still recognizes the island as sovereign China has compared Taiwan\u2019s President Lai Ching-te to a \u201crat crossing the street\u201d after he secretly boarded an Eswatini government aircraft and flew to the small southern African kingdom on an unannounced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[483],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rt-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTaiwan\u2019s leader a \u2018rat\u2019 \u2013 Beijing - Sting FM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Taiwan\u2019s leader a \u2018rat\u2019 \u2013 Beijing - 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