Yahoo TV

STORY: China on Sunday reacted in anger to a brief U.S. visit by Taiwan's Vice President William Lai, saying he was a separatist and "troublemaker through and through."

Lai - who arrived in New York on Saturday - is a front-runner to be Taiwan's next president.

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory.

Beijing's foreign ministry said it opposed any kind of visit by "Taiwan independence separatists" to the United States.

Taipei responded saying China was the real troublemaker - pointing to its standoff this month with the Philippines and its continued military harassment of Taiwan.

A person familiar with the trip's planning said Lai was not planning to meet with U.S. lawmakers.

Taipei and Washington call the U.S. stopovers routine and no cause for China to take "provocative" actions.

China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using Lai's stopovers as a pretext to intimidate voters ahead of January's election and make them "fear war," according to Taiwanese officials.

Lai's visits come as Beijing and Washington are trying to improve relations.

That includes the prospect of a visit to the U.S. by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, which could pave the way for a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and China's leader Xi Jinping later this year.