Bid for pomp and circumstance leaves Lai floundering in a flop

While the Democratic Progressive Party authorities' outreach to their "partners" is theater, their secessionist-minded leader Lai Ching-te's latest sneaky outing to Eswatini is more like an old-school farce.

The star of this curious production, Lai, did not so much depart China's Taiwan island as slip out, reportedly aboard the King of Eswatini's private jet.

The so-called "diplomatic achievements" painstakingly fabricated by Lai are nothing but petty tricks that make him a laughingstock to the world, as Chen Binhua, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said.