China's launches drills around Taiwan to "severely punish" the island's pro-independence leader, as the U.S. boosts its war footing in Japan to deter Chinese "aggression."

The Trump administration on Tuesday issued a warning to China after Beijing announced large-scale war games in the waters and airspace around Taiwan. The joint military drills, which were launched

China, which views democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, regularly holds exercises around the island, including one begun on Tuesday it said was to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence".

China, Japan and South Korea agreed to jointly respond to U.S. tariffs, a social media account affiliated with Chinese state media said on Monday, an assertion Seoul called "somewhat exaggerated", while Tokyo said there was no such discussion.

China is seeking to coordinate its response to U.S. tariffs with Japan and South Korea, Chinese state media said.

As per Chinese State Media, the three neighbouring countries held their first economic dialogue in five years, in which they discussed how to counter the tariffs from the United States.