Pakistan has let China Airlines and EVA Air back into its airspace, reversing a brief ban that Taipei says compromised flight safety. Islamabad has not publicly explained either decision.

China Airlines and EVA Air had not flown over Pakistan since October 25, sending their Europe-bound services round the closure via Russian and Indian airspace. Bloomberg broke the story on October 28, quoting Defence Minister Khawaja Asif as saying the decision followed the one-China policy and that only mainland Chinese carriers were being allowed through.

Later the same day Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority renewed both airlines' permits, which now run to March 27, 2027, Pakistani media reported. Islamabad has offered no public explanation for either the ban or its reversal. A Taiwanese transport ministry official said the window matched the International Air Transport Association's winter schedule and that the carriers would apply again for the summer season, Focus Taiwan reported.

Governments that follow the one-China line have long refused Taiwan diplomatic recognition, and some have harassed its officials. Pakistan's brief ban raised a new question about the vulnerability of commercial overflight rights, but the draft does not establish that no other country has previously barred Taiwanese carriers.

Taipei reacted with unusual sharpness. "We deeply regret Pakistan's behavior, including pandering to China by compromising flight safety," Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee said on October 29, accusing Islamabad of "politicizing and weaponizing airspace". "The Republic of China, Taiwan, is a sovereign country. It and China are not subordinate to each other," she added.

Deputy Foreign Minister Chen Ming-chi went further and named the suspect. Taipei believed China was behind the ban, he told Bloomberg Television, adding that the airlines had been told the restrictions would be lifted "but only temporarily ... until the end of the winter". Beijing, he argued, had worked out that overflight rights could be turned against Taiwan. "We see this is the discovery that they can weaponise the airspace assets," he said, warning that it "might be a practice that spreads to other global south countries".

"As far as we are aware, there are no obstacles for residents of the Taiwan region to travel internationally," foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said, an answer about passengers to a question about airlines.

Chen's fear of a spreading practice rests on a pattern that was visible well before October. In April Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar withdrew overflight permission for the chartered aircraft that was to carry President Lai Ching-te to Eswatini, forcing him to suspend the visit less than a day before departure. Mauritius later said the refusal was consistent with its one-China commitment and denied acting under pressure.

In June Kenya deported a Taiwanese scientist who had arrived for an oceans conference on a Taiwanese passport. In July Papua New Guinea ordered the closure of the Taiwan Economic Office in Port Moresby, Taipei's de facto embassy since 1990. Pakistan's move widens the target from a president's plane, a single delegation or one office to the island's whole commercial fleet.

Pakistan recognised the People's Republic in 1950 and the two established diplomatic relations in 1951, and it has since become one of Beijing's closest partners. Its government told parliament this month that it had completed 45 of the 95 projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a portfolio valued at $50.33bn, while 35 others worth $23.11bn, including the Main Line-1 railway, remain in planning. China is also Pakistan's main arms supplier.

Yet Pakistan has also spent the year courting Washington. Its army chief was among the regional leaders who persuaded US President Donald Trump to call off a strike on Iran in June, and Islamabad has stayed busy in the regional diplomacy around the conflict since. Whether that standing, or simple embarrassment, prompted the U-turn is not known; Pakistan has not said.

The ban cost the two carriers little beyond fuel and flying time, given the alternative routes.