The US, Australia and Japan urge China to cease military exercises around Taiwan – as it happened

This blog is now closed. Read our latest live news coverage of China's military drills around Taiwan here

Here's a summary of the latest developments as it passes 2pm in Taipei.

Christopher Twomey, a security scholar at the US Naval Postgraduate School in California, told Reuters the severing of the communication links was worrying, coming at what he believed was the beginning of a new Taiwan crisis.

That is precisely the time you would want to have more opportunities to talk to the other side ... Losing those channels greatly reduces the ability of the two sides to de-conflict military forces as various exercises and operations continue."