UFOs in China: The Hidden History of Chinese UAP Sightings

China’s UFO history is far older, broader and more complicated than most Western accounts suggest. In Episode 77 of UFO to UAP Explained, Matt Tones investigates the hidden history of UFO sightings in China, from ancient astronomical records and Chinese newspaper coverage of the 1947 flying-saucer wave to the extraordinary UFO boom that followed the People’s Daily article “UFO — An Unresolved World Mystery” in November 1978.

We trace the creation of China’s first major civilian UFO research organisation at Wuhan University, the nationwide 24 July 1981 luminous spiral sighting, the mysterious 1994 Guiyang “Flying Train” incident, and the 2010 unidentified object that temporarily shut down Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport. The story then moves inside modern Chinese air defence. This episode separates documented Chinese UFO history from speculation about extraterrestrial technology and asks why China may represent one of the biggest missing datasets in the global UAP mystery.

Episode Timestamps:

(0:00) — UFOs in China: the forgotten global story

(2:05) — Ancient Chinese sky records: UFOs or astronomy?

(4:05) — 1947: flying saucers reach China

(5:50) — 1978: the People’s Daily article that changed everything

(8:05) — China’s UFO boom and the Wuhan research movement

(10:20) — 24 July 1981: the massive luminous spiral over China

(15:30) — Science, belief and China’s UFO culture

(17:15) — 1994: the mysterious Guiyang “Flying Train” incident

(20:05 — Chinese scientists who continued investigating UFO reports

(21:20) — 2010: the UFO that closed Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport

(23:35) — From UFO sightings to PLA air-defence surveillance

(27:35) — Does China possess a secret UAP dataset?

Sources:

People’s Daily historical archive — UFO — An Unresolved “World Mystery”, 13 November 1978, page 6. The surviving archive confirms November 13 as the publication date;

The Paper — Wuhan UFO Past — history of the China UFO Enthusiasts Liaison Office founded at Wuhan University on 20 September 1979, its transformation into the China UFO Research Association, and its early collection of hundreds of sighting reports;

Liu Yan — “The UFO of July 24, 1981” — contemporary Chinese astronomical analysis translated by the U.S. Air Force Foreign Technology Division and retained in the U.S. Department of Defense archive;

CCTV — Searching for the Airborne Strange Train — retrospective investigation of the November 1994 destruction near Guiyang that became one of China’s best-known UFO mysteries;

China Daily / Xinhua — Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport incident — contemporary reporting confirms that the airport closed for approximately an hour on 7 July 2010 after an unidentified aerial object was reported; later reporting attributed the event to an unauthorised private flight;

South China Morning Post — Chinese military AI and UFO tracking, June 2021 — reporting on PLA researchers using AI to analyse what the military calls “unidentified air conditions.”;

China Military Network / PLA Daily — documented examples of Chinese radar units investigating unidentified air situations that were subsequently identified as drones or bird formations;

Chinese Ministry of National Defense — official description of PLAAF responsibilities including monitoring and verifying abnormal and unidentified air situations;

Keywords:

UFOs in China, Chinese UFO sightings, China UFO history, China UAP, Chinese UAP, UFO sightings China, China UFO files, Chinese UFO research, China UFO Research Association, Wuhan UFO research, 1981 China UFO, China spiral UFO, Guiyang UFO, Flying Train UFO China, Hangzhou UFO, Xiaoshan Airport UFO, China military UFO, PLA UFO, unidentified air conditions China, China UAP program, China UFO disclosure, Chinese military UAP, UFO history, UAP history, UFO to UAP Explained.