China sends dozens of warplanes near Taiwan after vice-president’s US stopover

Chinese state media says military exercises involving planes and vessels were intended as a ‘stern warning’ against colluding with ‘foreign elements’

China launched military drills around Taiwan on Saturday as a “stern warning” after voicing anger over a stopover in the United States by the island’s vice-president, William Lai.

Lai – the frontrunner in Taiwan’s presidential election next year and a vocal opponent of Beijing’s claims to the island – returned on Friday from a trip to Paraguay during which he stopped briefly in New York and San Francisco.

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