China has long given assurances that it would not interfere in free access to the global commons. As one Ministry of Defense spokesperson put it in 2024, “the Chinese side always respects the freedom of navigation and overflight entitled to countries under international law.” Although these reassurances have always been disingenuous, China’s recent actions display a blatant disregard for these principles. Countries that care about civilian air safety should take note.
In April, President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) canceled a planned trip to Eswatini for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s coronation and the 58th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations. China reportedly weighed on Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Seychelles to deny Lai’s charter plane transit through their flight information regions — despite the intended flight path remaining in international airspace.
As the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation and its later annexes make clear, a country overseeing an FIR assumes responsibility for ensuring the safety and security of air traffic both within its sovereign airspace and over the high seas within the FIR that lie outside its sovereign territory. It does not assume control.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines an FIR as “an airspace of defined dimensions within which flight information service and alerting service are provided.” Flight information service is “a service provided for the purpose of giving advice and information useful for the safe and efficient conduct of flights.” Alerting service is “a service provided to notify appropriate organizations regarding aircraft in need of search and rescue aid, and assist such organizations as required.”
These responsibilities do not grant sovereign rights to a state outside its defined territory. Put simply, Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Seychelles have no legal right to deny foreign aircraft access to FIRs they oversee. Yet that is precisely what they did. And while President Lai has the law on his side, he was right to cancel his flight, which would have taken him over remote Indian Ocean waters without the benefit of flight information and alerting services. To attempt to proceed would have been unsafe for his delegation and for all aircraft in the area.
Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Seychelles, of course, were acting at the behest of China. According to Secretary-General to the President Pan Men-an, China applied “intense pressure … including economic coercion” on all three. To keen observers of China’s attitude towards international civil air safety, this should come as no surprise.
China has long abused its position in ICAO to advance its designs vis-a-vis Taiwan. It has denied Taiwan observership status at the ICAO assembly, despite Taiwan’s management of the Taipei FIR, one of the world’s busiest. In 2024, approximately 1.64 million flights used the Taipei FIR and 64 million passengers used Taiwan’s airports.
As the US Indo-Pacific Command Joint Operational Law Team explained in 2024, “Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) operates largely on its own without the benefit of ICAO’s expertise and institutional mechanisms for resolving disputes and coordinating safety and technical interoperability.” Beijing prioritizes silencing and isolating Taiwan over ensuring the safety of passengers and air crews passing near and through the island.
On multiple occasions over the last eight years, China has unilaterally established new civilian air routes over the Taiwan Strait, despite prior agreements for prior consultation with Taipei. Flight routes should be changed or established “only after they have been coordinated with all parties concerned,” according to ICAO’s Air Traffic Services Planning Manual. Yet Taiwan was not consulted, nor did its subsequent objections give pause to ICAO, which quietly accepted the new air routes.
Taiwan’s friends and allies, including the United States, have long advocated for Taiwan’s inclusion in ICAO, though they have neglected to put much elbow grease into the effort. But, ultimately, this story is not about Taiwan.
This story is about Beijing’s assault on freedom of navigation and overflight. It is about Beijing’s insidious use of critical international organizations to advance its parochial interests. And it is about the safety hazards China is more than happy to impose on the rest of us in the pursuit of ultimately meaningless political wins.
It is unfortunate that Lai had to cancel his trip to Eswatini. But this incident does not bring Taiwan any closer to accepting Beijing’s frigid embrace. Instead, it has shown that Beijing is quick to make fools of those countries that do embrace it and that Xi Jinping would rather see civilian airliners plummet to the sea than pass up an opportunity to poke an adversary in the eye.
Michael Mazza is senior director for research at the Institute for Indo-Pacific Security (formerly the Project 2049 Institute) and a senior non-resident fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute.
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China has long given assurances that it would not interfere in free access to the global commons. As one Ministry of Defense spokesperson put it in 2024, “the Chinese side always respects the freedom of navigation and overflight entitled to countries under international law.” Although these reassurances have always been disingenuous, China’s recent actions display a blatant disregard for these principles. Countries that care about civilian air safety should take note. In April, President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) canceled a planned trip to Eswatini for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s coronation and the 58th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic
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