Monday, November 29, 2021

China study warns of 'colossal' COVID outbreak if it opens up like U.S., France

A security guard blocks an exit as he directs people to scan a QR code to track their health status at Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station, following new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Shanghai, China, November 25, 2021. Picture taken November 25, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song

Reuters-November 28, 2021

BEIJING, Nov 28 (Reuters) - China could face more than 630,000 COVID-19 infections a day if it dropped its zero-tolerance policies by lifting travel curbs, according to a study by Peking University mathematicians.

In the report published in China CDC Weekly by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the mathematicians said China could not afford to lift travel restrictions without more efficient vaccinations or specific treatments.

Using data for August from the United States, Britain, Spain, France and Israel, the mathematicians assessed the potential results if China adopted the same pandemic control tactics as those countries.

China's daily new cases would reach at least 637,155 if it adopted the United States' pandemic strategy, the report said.

And daily cases would hit 275,793 if China took the same approach as Britain and 454,198 if it imitated France, it said.

"The estimates revealed the real possibility of a colossal outbreak which would almost certainly induce an unaffordable burden on the medical system," the report said.

"Our findings have raised a clear warning that, for the time being, we are not ready to embrace 'open-up' strategies resting solely on the hypothesis of herd immunity induced by vaccination advocated by certain western countries."

The mathematicians cautioned that their estimates were based on basic arithmetic calculations and that more sophisticated models were needed to study the evolution of the pandemic if travel restrictions were lifted.

China has maintained a zero-tolerance policy towards COVID-19, saying the importance of containing local cases when they are found outweighs the disruptions caused by efforts to trace, isolate and treat the infected.

China reported 23 new confirmed coronavirus cases for Nov. 27, down from 25 a day earlier, its health authority said on Sunday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday designated a new COVID-19 variant detected in South Africa with a large number of mutations as being "of concern", prompting some countries to impose travel curbs. read more

The secret to great sex? It’s not what you think …

There’s more to good sex than complicated positions or wild lust. The authors of a groundbreaking study explain what really makes it great

‘Sex can begin as a fantasy played out in the mind, over a whole day’. Illustration: Eiko Ojala/The Guardian

by Alexandra Jones-Fri 26 Nov 2021

Far from what films and TV shows might tell us, truly magnificent sex has very little to do with daring feats of seduction or screaming orgasms. In fact, according to the latest research, erotic intimacy is more a state of mind than a physical act.

In a recent study, Magnificent Sex, psychologist and sex therapist Dr Peggy J Kleinplatz and her colleagues at Ottawa University in Canada realised that, while whole library sections were dedicated to bad sex (and how to make it better), there was almost no literature dedicated to great sex. What did it feel like? Who was having it? And what made it so great?

To answer some of these questions, the researchers recruited people from around the world across the age, gender and sexuality spectrum – who self-reported having had, at some point in their lives, truly mindblowing sex.

Through a series of interviews, researchers began to build up a picture of what “the best sex ever” looks, feels and sounds like. “One of the first surprising findings,” write the study authors, “was the … uncanny similarity in descriptions. [This] helped us to become reasonably certain that everyone was talking about the same experience.” Despite the different ways each participant actually had sex, at the very peaks of the experience, everyone was feeling the same kinds of things: total absorption in the moment, deep connection with their partner, and openness and a willingness to take a few emotional risks.

“For the magnificent lovers [in the study],” says sex educator Emily Nagoski, the author of Come As You Are: the Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life, “sex became a way to know themselves and their partners more fully. It was a way to play and explore together – to become vulnerable with one another. To go on an adventure.” And for many, she points out, it led “to feeling more at peace with who they are and more satisfied in their lives generally. It’s really powerful stuff.”

Taking this groundbreaking study as a starting point, we ask its authors and other experts how everyone can have better sex.

Be completely present

As anyone who’s tried to meditate might know, being completely undistracted by the endless pinging, buzzing, chattering ephemera of modern life is easier said than done (in fact, according to a study from researchers at the University of Virginia, one in 10 people admitted to checking their phone during sex).

But there are ways that we can get better at being present. “What’s helped me to feel more present and embodied within my sexual experiences,” says sex educator Ruby Rare, “is training myself to feel more present and embodied throughout the day.

So, taking a moment to note the texture of the ground that I’m walking on, the feel of the air on my skin, or the particular hue of the sky. Really trying to tap into the sensations in my body – sight, sound, smell, taste. If you take time to train that aptitude, it’s much easier to then bring it into the sexual environment with you.”

Broaden your definition of sex

As Rare says: “If we can let go of our traditional notions of what does and doesn’t ‘count’ as sex we might discover something altogether more fulfilling. I like to grab parts of a partner’s body, to really worship the texture and feel of a leg or a stomach. That’s an erotic experience that sits outside traditional ‘scripts’ but it’s one I find deeply satisfying. If you let go of the idea that you’re ‘meant to’ kiss, then do foreplay, then have sex and an orgasm, you’re suddenly open to playing and exploring; to being more present with someone’s body and really seeing how you can interact with it in a way that might excite you even more.”

Nagoski agrees. “The problem is, pop culture’s script for how good sex should go and what it should look like is incredibly narrow,” she says. “We are told that it is the product of spontaneous, out-of-the-blue horniness. There are lots of positions, perhaps some foreplay, definitely penetration, then orgasms – the end.” In actuality, “none of that is true”, she says. Sex could be anything: “Just kissing; having a long, erotically charged conversation; touching; bathing with a partner. As long as you’ve got consent, and no unwanted pain, you can roll around like puppies.”

In her study, Kleinplatz has often seen this in action with her patients. As she explains: “The people having the greatest sexual fulfilment were people who had, for one reason or another, discarded the entire package of paint-by-numbers ideas about sexuality. Because these people had then gone on to create something that fit better for them.”

Engage with your deepest desires

Of course, just because anything can be sex, it doesn’t mean that everything will turn us on. Psychotherapist Ian Kerner, author of So Tell Me About the Last Time You Had Sex: Laying Bare and Learning to Repair Our Love Lives, believes the key to the best sex of our lives is to spend time engaging with our deepest erotic fantasies.

He argues that each of us has one or more “core erotic themes” – sexual scenarios that “contain a lot of heat for us”. But, he says: “If you ask most people what their ultimate erotic fantasy or biggest turn-on is, they probably would struggle to tell you.” Becoming really aware of what these are will inevitably help us to have more satisfying sex, he says. “These are things that get us feeling the most turned on, the most fired up. The thing that, when you let your mind wander to it, will get you thinking, ‘Yeah, this is hot, I want more of this.’ – But a lot of people simply don’t know what their core erotic themes are.”

To discover yours, Kerner suggests “a tasting menu” approach – taking some time on your own to sample sexual content from different creators, whether that’s magazines, erotic fiction, films such as director Erika Lust’s X, or podcasts such as Dipsea or Dirty Diana, the erotica fiction series produced by (and starring) Demi Moore. “We’re living through a golden age of sexual content,” says Kerner, “use it to your benefit.”

Once you’ve read, watched or listened widely on your own, Kerner says, “think about which erotic themes are really drawing you in. Or which come up over and over again.” It’s likely that we’re drawn to certain power dynamics, so even if the content is all very different, it may still be possible to pick out one constant theme running through. From there, we can begin to communicate these to others and build sexual experiences which tap into these themes.

… but develop self-compassion

Admittedly, most of us have fantasies which we would struggle to articulate for fear of being rejected. And yet, wondrous new depths of sexual fulfilment, self-awareness and connection may await if we do. Nagoski argues that the first step to opening up is to develop self-compassion. “You turn toward the parts of yourself that you are worried about, with kindness, accepting that while they may seem scary they are also true.” Inviting someone we trust into that truth, she says, can be an incredibly liberating experience.

Now, be honest …

Being radically honest about what lights you up in the bedroom can be uncomfortable, particularly if your desires sit outside “the norm”. But, Nagoski says: “If you never say it, you may never get to experience the satisfaction of doing it.”

Rare recommends approaching such conversations with “a technique I’ve borrowed from the sex educator Allison Moon: first tell the person you want to talk to them about something, then explain it’s something you feel embarrassed or nervous about, and why. Perhaps others have reacted badly in the past and you’re worried this person will reject you, too. Then you can launch into what you have to say having already let them know what emotions are attached to the conversation for you.”

Play mind games

As well as helping us create a clearer idea about what engages us on an erotic level, discovering our desires also helps us employ our intellect and imaginations. “I think that there’s a real dearth of mind-based arousal nowadays,” says Kerner. “We depend on the newness of a relationship or encounter to provide that kind of psychological stimuli.”

Instead of just relying on certain physical acts to get us in the mood, sex can begin as a fantasy played out in the mind, over a whole day. “We often lose our ability to ‘make-believe’ as adults,” says Kerner. “So it’s about redeveloping that.” This could mean fantasising about yourself as the main character in a scenario, or just daydreaming at work about the kind of sex you plan to have that night. “It’s called psychogenic arousal – the arousal which is triggered by sexual thoughts rather than physical stimulation.”

Communicate from the start

“If you can develop open communication around sex from the beginning of a relationship, it’s incredibly helpful,” says Kerner. This means offering and being open to feedback, and being compassionate with a partner if they become embarrassed or defensive. For example, you might say: “I’d find it really hot if we did this or you touched me like this.

“If you can visualise the sex you want to have,” he says, “you’re really halfway there. It will help you be clear with someone else about what you want.”

Schedule fun

It might seem like an oxymoron – it is surely at its best when it’s spontaneous – but putting sex in the diary may well be the key to creating space for the hot and spontaneous to happen.

“Sex requires intentionality,” says Kleinplatz. “It requires saying, ‘I’m willing to make being with you a priority in my life.’ If you’re doing it right, it will take effort – it shouldn’t feel like work, but certainly will take time and energy.”

Horrors on the Plateau: Inside Nigeria’s farmer-herder conflict

The violence in central Nigeria is now one of the country’s deadliest security threats after Boko Haram in the northeast and banditry in the northwest.

Mary Hommes fled her village after it was attacked with her family and baby Ruth, whose mother was killed [Alfred Olufemi/Al Jazeera]

By Alfred Olufemi-28 Nov 2021

Plateau, Nigeria – Mary Hommes wiped her face with a red scarf as she recalled the August day when attackers ambushed her village in central Nigeria’s Plateau state.

“We heard about an attack around 5am [on August 2],” the 29-year-old told Al Jazeera three days later. “Before we knew what was happening, everywhere was in disarray.”

Mary saw three women run into the bush with their babies. She ran in the opposite direction.

“That was how I was able to escape,” she explained, struggling to hold back her tears.

From a nearby vantage point, Mary witnessed the violence that followed.

“They (the assailants) asked them (the three women) to keep their children on the ground. They said they were going to kill the three women and the women were begging for a pardon.

“They started shooting them.”

The assailants left the three babies – a three-month-old girl called Ruth and two boys, aged 18 months and two years old – wailing near the lifeless corpses of their mothers. Roughly two hours later, when the violence had ended, Mary emerged from her hiding place to rescue them.

Residents of Maiyanga, a village in the Bassa Local Government Area (LGA) which was formerly home to 400 people, many of them subsistence farmers from the Irigwe ethnic group, said they are not sure how many people were killed that day – but that it was more than was reported by the police.

The assailants, they said, were herders.

Villagers killed, buildings burned

According to the authorities, between July 31 and August 2, similar attacks took place across communities in Bassa and its neighbouring LGA, Riyom.

On August 5, Plateau state’s commissioner of police, Edward Egbuka, said that 17 people had been killed by unnamed “criminals” and 85 buildings had been burned in the two LGAs.

However, locals who spoke to Al Jazeera said that figure is grossly inaccurate. More people were killed and more areas were affected, they have insisted.

Residents of Maiyanga and Kishesha, another rural community in Bassa, said no fewer than 20 of their relatives lost their lives on August 2 alone.

They said that the attackers, heavily armed and dressed in military camouflage or long black coats, shot their relatives or slit their throats. They also razed several houses.

Local media reported that at least 400 homes were set ablaze by the assailants in Kpachudu, Kpetenvie, Nche-Tahu, Tafi gana, DTV, Zahwra and five other villages in Bassa. Like Maiyanga, these areas are dominated by subsistence farmers from the Irigwe ethnic group.

Herder-farmer clashes

Plateau state is home to about 40 ethnic groups and has been a hotbed of conflict.

The clashes, mostly between Muslim Fulani herders and Christian farmers from the Berom and Irigwe ethnic groups, is often painted as ethnoreligious. But analysts have said climate change and scarcity of pastoral land is pitting the farmers and herders against each other, irrespective of faith.

The majority of Irigwe and Berom farmers grow acha (a grain known as “hungry rice”) and millet while the chief cash crops are yams, sorghum, corn, potatoes, cowpeas and rice.

The Fulani, meanwhile, are nomadic pastoralists, often of northern extraction, who have travelled to central and southern parts of the country in search of greener pastures for their livestock. In some cases, the pastoralists permanently settle in their host communities.

However, across the years, pastoral land scarcity compounded by increasing urbanisation has forced herders onto farmlands and restricted areas, such as national parks and conserved forests. This often results in the destruction of crops and ends up snowballing into a conflict between the herders and local farmers.

In retaliation, aggrieved farmers and members of farming communities sometimes attack the herders and their livestock.

‘Is it justice to kill the cow and the owner?’

Abdullahi Abubakar, 39, is a Fulani pastoralist who said his descendants have been in Plateau state for more than a hundred years.

In July last year, his son was slaughtered while herding cattle. Thirteen-year-old Mustapha had been tending to the livestock when he was attacked.

His suspected killer, an Irigwe farmer, is currently in prison while on trial.

Mustapha, who his father described as being “really good with arithmetics”, was in his final year of primary school.

If someone destroys your farm, is it justice to kill the cow and the owner?
ABDULLAHI ABUBAKAR

“I feel very bad,” said Abdullahi.

“They (the farmers) kill our cows one after the other. When they kill our boys, they cut their heads. They shoot them to death or slaughter them.”

He believed the killing of herders and their livestock is not proportional to the destruction of farmers’ crops. “It is not a justification. If someone destroys your farm, is it justice to kill the cow and the owner?” he asked.

A history of attacks

The herder-farmer clashes are also fuelled by the dichotomy between those who consider themselves “indigenes” – the Berom and Irigwe people – and the Fulanis, who are regarded by many as settlers.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), this tension was at the root of the first documented clash – triggered by the appointment of a Muslim politician who was not considered an “indigene” to the post of local coordinator for the federal poverty alleviation programme – in 2001.

The move “was seen by some as a provocation and was strongly opposed by Christian groups”, HRW researchers noted.

The tensions turned violent on September 7, 2001, when a Christian woman attempted to cross a barricaded street outside a mosque during Friday prayers in Jos, Plateau state’s capital city.

“She was asked to wait until prayers had finished or to choose another route, but she refused and an argument developed between her and some members of the congregation. Within minutes, the argument had unleashed a violent battle between groups of Christians who appeared at the scene and Muslims who had been praying at the mosque or who happened to be in the neighborhood,” HRW reported.

This conflict later spread to other parts of the state, like the farming communities nearly 50km (31 miles) away in Riyom.

HRW said groups of primarily young men on both sides of the religious and ethnic divide retaliated and sought to avenge real or rumoured attacks. In one instance, on September 11, 2001, some Fulani militias invaded the village of Rankum, home to a mainly Christian Berom community.

Stephen Jugu, a former community leader in Rankum, told Al Jazeera that assailants attacked the village and burned down his house. His grandfather and two others were killed. Stephen fled.

“We moved to different parts. Some entered Jol district, some in Barkin Ladi district. Everybody found a way to escape death,” the now 52-year-old explained, sitting in an abandoned structure that used to house displaced people in Vwang, Jos South.

He was once a successful commercial farmer who grew acha and millet. But, like many others, after the attacks, he left his farm and livestock to start a new life in a new community more than 32km (20 miles) away.

Today, he barely gets by working as a tin miner.

His former home village has been renamed Mahanga by the new occupants. Although the Berom and Fulani communities now occupying Mahanga signed a peace accord in 2018, Stephen said he wouldn’t dare return out of fears for his safety.

300,000 people displaced

In the years since 2001, the intercommunal conflict in Plateau has become a recurring problem. A Nigerian government investigative committee found that between September 2001 and May 2004, it resulted in the deaths of more than 53,000 people.

Between 2001 and 2018, about 60,000 people were killed and more than 300,000 displaced across four Nigerian states due to the farmer-herder conflict, according to a survey conducted by development and policy advocacy firm Zinariya Consult with support from Global Rights and Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

Joseph Ochogwu, one of the lead researchers on the survey and an associate professor at the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, explained that of the 300,000 people displaced “176,000 [were] in Benue, about 100,000 in Plateau, and 100,000 in Nasarawa and about 19,000 in Taraba”.

The growing conflict now constitutes one of Nigeria’s major security threats after the Boko Haram rebellion in the northeast and the banditry ravaging the northwest.

‘Slaughtered like a cow’

After Mary rescued the babies in Maiyanga, she made sure that the two boys were sent to live with relatives in nearby villages. Then she fled with her husband, a rice farmer, her two children and the three-month-old baby girl, Ruth. With the baby in her arms, she trekked 20km (12 miles) to the town of Kwall, where they took shelter with some distant relatives.

Later that day, Ruth’s father came to meet them, but he had to return to Maiyanga to bury his wife, so he left the baby behind.

In the days following the attacks in July and August, dozens of displaced people who had fled their different villages converged in Kwall. On August 5, Mary was among those gathered for a meeting at the town hall, where representatives of a local humanitarian crisis group had come to assess their needs.

At the gathering sat Talatu Sunday, 33, who told Al Jazeera that she fled her village of Kikoba – 20km (12 miles) away in neighbouring Kaduna state – with her three children when the attackers came.

Her husband, Yakubu Friday, did not make it.

“He was found around a river basin. He was slaughtered like a cow. Not gunshot,” Talatu said, crying.

In Kikoba, the couple, who first met when they were just children, were potato and vegetable farmers who would cultivate their individual plots before combining their produce to sell.

Now Talatu and her children – two boys aged nine and seven, and a girl of four – stay in her uncle’s house in Kwall; her dreams of growing old with Yakubu shattered.

“Anything that God opens the door for me [to have], I will use it to take care of the family,” she said. If security were to improve, she hoped to one day return to Kikoba to continue farming on their now abandoned plots, so that she might better provide for her children.

‘They will trail you like a dog’

Forty-year-old Sunday Madaki sat in Kwall district hall wearing an oversized, faded coat and torn shorts.

He mopped his face with a dirty towel as he described how his wife and 12-year-old child were killed in an attack on Kishesha village.

“We were not looking for trouble. We were just at home and … all of a sudden we started hearing sporadic shooting.”

Sunday asked his wife and child to flee, but the assailants trailed them and killed them, he said.

“If you are lucky to run away, you run away. By the time you are running, they will trail you like a dog.”

He lost five members of his family in total.

“But I have forgiven them (the attackers),” he muttered, explaining that his Christian faith teaches that vengeance is for God and not something for men to seek.

Sunday and his remaining seven children now live in his brother’s house in Kwall, and will not return home until they are certain that Kishesha is safe.

‘Both sides are at fault’

While suspected Muslim herders have attacked Christian farming communities, gangs of armed Christian youth have also attacked Muslims.

In August, an attack on Muslims travelling through Jos for a religious event reportedly led to the deaths of more than 30 people.

The state government responded by imposing curfews.

Abdullahi Ardo, the Plateau state secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, a group that represents the interests of the Fulanis, said “both sides are at fault” and to blame for not abiding by past peace deals.

But, he added, the media had not been fair to the herders. “When the Fulani are killed, they will be buried but no media will broadcast,” he said.

Still, he said that he was hopeful that both groups can co-exist without conflict as they had for many years before.

But Confidence McHarry, a lead security analyst at SBM Intelligence – a Nigerian geopolitical intelligence platform, believed there is no end in sight to the clashes, which he said have followed the same pattern as other conflicts in Nigeria – starting out as being about resource control before becoming “an ethnic conflagration” and “then, over time, religion shifts into it.”

Using media reports, Confidence has tracked more than 177 deaths in Plateau state resulting from the herder-farmer clashes between 2019 and 2021. But, local journalist Masara Kim said many deaths go unreported.

Masara, who has lost two siblings to the crisis, said the attacks are becoming more sophisticated.

“When it started in the 2000s, you [would] hardly see five out of 200 people armed with guns,” he said, explaining that back then many used “machetes and other crude weapons”. Now, however, guns are more widely used.

‘Local vigilantes’

A special task force, codenamed Operation Safe Haven, has been deployed to Plateau state since 2001, with members based within 30 minutes of some of the villages attacked on August 2. But with the Nigerian security forces facing a Boko Haram rebellion in the northeast and banditry in the northwest, and with military operations taking place in more than 30 of Nigeria’s states, Confidence believed they do not have the capacity to tackle this conflict.

Plateau state police spokesperson, Gabriel Ubah, said the police mobilise teams to communities when there are reports of attacks. “We try our best to ensure that arrests are made and investigate,” he explained.

Abdullahi from the Fulani association believes the solution could be for the government to support local vigilante groups to combat the violence.

“Each community has vigilantes who know their hamlets very well. The government should empower the local vigilantes more. They know the nooks and crannies of their environment,” he told Al Jazeera.

The search for a lasting solution

Meanwhile, for a lasting solution, experts have suggested banning open-grazing – the system that allows indiscriminate grazing of farmlands by cattle – and instead promoting ranching, which would allow pastoralists to access a large expanse of land for grazing without encroaching on farmers’ land.

Nigerian herders must accept “modern animal husbandry”, said Femi Falana, a lawyer and rights activist, pointing to Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya and Ethiopia, where ranching has been adopted.

“The worsening insecurity in the country including the violent clashes between herders and farmers can only be seriously addressed if policymakers are prepared to abandon primitive ideas and embrace scientific solutions,” he added.

On May 17, 17 governors in Nigeria declared a ban on open-grazing but President Muhammadu Buhari questioned the legality of it, saying the government was working on alternative solutions.

One of those is the National Livestock Transformation Plan (2018-2027), which aims to provide ranches across the country. As part of its commitment, the Federal Government, in July, approved a 6.25 billion naira ($15m) investment to launch a pilot scheme in Katsina state.

Safe, for now

Meanwhile, back in Kwall, Arogo Jesse, the assistant secretary-general of Kwall Youth Development Association, said the town was fast turning into a refugee camp.

“For now, the displaced persons meet every day in the morning from 10am to 12pm to pray and meet again later around 4pm. We don’t have much food for the IDPs and that is why we provide at least one meal for them in the afternoon,” Gastor Barrie, the chairman of the Relief and Intervention Committee in Plateau state, told Nigerian media.

Mary, her family and baby Ruth are still living with her extended family, who have also housed a few other displaced people in their simple mud home.

Solomon Daylop, a lawyer from Riyom and the founder of the Emancipation Centre for Crisis Victims in Nigeria (ECCVN), drove to where baby Ruth now lives following the August 2 attack.

Mary told the ECCVN team that, with nobody to breastfeed the infant, she was rejecting all food and feeding her was a challenge. Solomon promised to regularly check up on her and to assist with support from his organisation.

Mary has since told Al Jazeera that Ruth has gradually adjusted to her new environment and is feeding.

The coming months will not be easy, especially with the uncertainty about where they will all end up. But for now, at least, Ruth is safe.

27 Chinese military planes fly into Taiwan airspace as tensions in South China Sea continue to rise

China flew 27 military planes into Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone
Comes after China's military carried out patrols in direction of the Taiwan Strait
A U.S. Congressional delegation made a surprise visit to Taipei on Friday

By BHVISHYA PATEL FOR MAILONLINE- 28 November 2021

China has flown another 27 military planes into Taiwan's airspace as tensions as around the South China Sea island continue to rise.

The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense said that the Chinese military aircrafts entered the south west area of the nation's Air Defense Identification Zone earlier today.

They tweeted: '27 PLA aircraft (KJ-500 AEW&C*2, Y-9 EW, H-6*5, Y-20 Aerial Refueling, J-10*6, J-11*4 and J-16*8) entered Taiwan's southwest ADIZ on November 28, 2021.'

The latest move comes just days after China's military carried out 'combat readiness' patrols in the direction of the Taiwan Strait as a U.S. Congressional delegation made a surprise visit to Taipei and offered support to the Chinese-claimed, democratically governed island.

On Friday, the five members of the U.S. House of Representatives arrived in Taiwan for a two-day trip, the second time in a month U.S. lawmakers have visited.

China has flown 27 military planes in the southwest area of Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone

The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense said that the Chinese military aircrafts had entered the southwest area

As with the last visit, China's military announced the patrols in the vicinity of the narrow and sensitive Taiwan Strait that separates the island from its giant neighbour.

The People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command said that on Friday it 'organised naval and air forces to continue combat readiness police patrols in direction of the Taiwan Strait'.

'The relevant actions are necessary to deal with the current situation in the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan is part of China's territory, and defending national sovereignty and territorial integrity is our military's sacred mission.'

China routinely denounces visits by U.S. politicians to Taiwan, and its foreign ministry said it had made a formal complaint to Washington about the latest trip by the bipartisan congressional group, saying playing the Taiwan card was 'a losing hand'.

Meeting Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at her office earlier on Friday, the leader of the U.S. delegation praised the island as a 'force for good' in the world.

'Madame President, I want to commend and praise your leadership. Under your administration, the bonds between us are more positive and productive than they have been for decades,' said Mark Takano, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, whose group was previously in Japan and South Korea.

A PLA J-16 (file image) was among the military planes that were flown into the area

Also among the military aircrafts that entered Taiwan's airspace was a PLA Y-9 EW (file photo)

The Taiwanese Ministry of National said that PLA H-6 (file photo) was among the aircrafts spotted in the region

Xi Jinping calls for talent cultivation to support stronger military

'Our commitment to Taiwan is rock solid and has remained steadfast as the ties between us have deepened. Taiwan is a democratic success story, a reliable partner and a force for good in the world,' he added.

The United States, like most countries, has no official ties with Taiwan but is the democratically-ruled island's most important international backer and arms supplier.

Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who is part of the delegation, tweeted that China's Washington embassy 'demanded we cancel the trip' when news of it broke.

'We didn't,' she added, and posted a picture of herself outside the U.S. Air Force jet that carried her to Taipei under the caption 'Just touched down in the Republic of Taiwan', a term used by supporters of the island's formal independence.

In October, China flew 52 aircraft into Taiwan's airspace in its single largest mission to date last month.

Taipei said 34 J-16 fighters accompanied 12 H-6 nuclear-capable bombers, two Su-30 jets and other military planes into its 'air defence identification zone'.

It came just weeks after China flew a total of 93 aircraft close to the island in five separate missions - the largest of which comprised of 25 planes.

Last month Chinese state media also issued threats to the island and its allies, asking 'whether Australia is willing to accompany Taiwan… to become cannon fodder' after its foreign minister reached out for help preparing his defences.

China's Global Times newspaper, a mouthpiece for the state, tweeted the threat, responding to minister Joseph Wu who had asked Australia and other 'like-minded' nations to share military intelligence and security information.

Separately, Global Times editor Hu Xijin tweeted that it is 'only a matter of time before Taiwan's separatist authorities fall'.

An editorial in the same newspaper then added that - unlike the 'guard of honour' in traditional parades - the planes flown towards Taiwan 'are fighting forces aimed at actual combat'.

'The increase in the number of aircraft showed the PLA Air Force's operational capabilities,' the newspaper said, adding: 'It is a clear and unmistakable declaration of China's sovereignty over the island.'

The operations are designed to familiarise pilots with 'battlefield conditions' so that 'once the order to attack is given' they will be able to fight like 'experienced veterans', the editorial concluded.

'There is no doubt about the future of the situation across the Taiwan Straits.

'The initiative of when and how to solve the Taiwan question is firmly in the hands of the Chinese mainland.'

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