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

News Snapshot:

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. China has reacted angrily to the US stops, and on Saturday reiterated that Lai was a “troublemaker” while vowing to take “resolute measures … to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity”. The...