China, Taiwan and Japan braced for what may be the most destructive tropical storm in years as Super Typhoon Bavi, a storm roughly the width of France at about 1,000km, churned toward the region with winds near 200km/h.

Bavi is expected to gradually weaken this week and threaten northern Taiwan and Japan's Ryukyu Islands as a Category 3 storm on Friday.

After devastating the western Pacific islands, Bavi’s catastrophic winds are expected to hit the eastern Chinese coast over the weekend.

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