Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency FBIS record, dated 7 December 1993, carries a Xinhua English-language report on the close of a three-day UFO symposium in Beijing. It was the first such meeting attended by both mainland and Taiwan researchers. China UFO Research Organization chairman Wang Changting said more than 5,000 sightings had been reported on the mainland and several hundred in Taiwan, and some could not be explained. About 50 researchers discussed whether UFOs came from remote galaxies or were natural or man-made phenomena.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
*** Document 292 of 54 - FBIS ***
DOCN 000408973
CLAS UNCLAS 1L
SERI SERIAL: OW0712101693
COUN COUNTRY: PRC
SUBJ*SUBJ: TAIWAN, MAINLAND UFO SYMPOSIUM CLOSES IN BEIJING
SOUR SOURCE: BEIJING XINHUA IN ENGLISH 0836 GMT 7 DEC 93
TEXT TEXT:
* //((("UFOS GALORE ACROSS TAIWAN STRAITS" -- XINHUA HEADLINE))
((TEXT)) BEIJING, DECEMBER 7 (XINHUA) -- NEARLY 6,000 SIGHTINGS
*OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS (UFOS) ACROSS THE TAIWAN STRAITS HAVE BEEN REPORTED, SAID EXPERTS FROM THE CHINESE MAINLAND AND TAIWAN HERE TODAY. SOME HAVE DEFIED RATIONAL EXPLANATION.
* WANG CHANGTING, CHAIRMAN OF THE CHINA UFO RESEARCH ORGANIZATION (CURO), SAID THAT MORE THAN 5,000 SIGHTINGS HAVE BEEN REPORTED FROM THE MAINLAND, AND SEVERAL HUNDREDS IN TAIWAN.
RESEARCHERS AT A THREE-DAY SYMPOSIUM ON UFOS, WHICH CLOSED HERE TODAY, SAID THAT SOME OF THE SIGHTINGS CANNOT BE EXPLAINED BY GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OR CURRENT SCIENTIFIC FINDINGS. THE MEETING WAS THE FIRST OF ITS KIND ATTENDED BOTH BY TAIWAN AND
THE MEETING WAS THE FIRST OF ITS KIND ATTENDED BOTH BY TAIWAN AND MAINLAND RESEARCHERS.
THEY SAID THAT PEOPLE WHO HAD SEEN THE UFOS INCLUDED ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY WORKERS AS WELL AS CIVIL AND MILITARY PILOTS.
* CHINA DECIDED LAST YEAR TO STAGE A WORLD UFO CONFERENCE IN 1993. THE PLAN FELL THROUGH BECAUSE OF INSUFFICIENT PREPARATION.
BUT WANG SAID THAT THE CROSS-STRAITS MEETING WAS A CONTINUATION OF THE SEARCH FOR LIFE FORMS FROM OTHER SOLAR SYSTEMS -- ONE OF THE THEMES OF THE "1992 INTERNATIONAL SPACE YEAR".
ABOUT 50 RESEARCHERS AT THE SYMPOSIUM DISCUSSED THE REAL NATURE OF UFOS, WITH SOME OF THEM BELIEVING THEY CAME FROM REMOTE GALAXIES AND OTHERS SAYING THEY WERE NATURAL PHENOMENA OR ARTIFICIAL OBJECTS, SUCH AS LIGHTNING BOLTS, OR BALLOONS OR MAN-MADE SATELLITES.
* THE FIRST REPORT OF A UFO, ALSO KNOWN AS FLYING SAUCERS, CAME FROM THE UNITED STATES IN 1947. IT BECAME A WIDESPREAD TOPIC IN TAIWAN IN THE 1960S, AND ON THE MAINLAND IN THE LATE 1970S.
THE LATEST SIGHTING WAS ON AUGUST 7 THIS YEAR, WHEN PEOPLE FOUND TWO RIM-LINKED HAT-LIKE OBJECTS SOARING OVER TAIPEI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT FOR 15 MINUTES, MEDIA REPORTED.
THERE HAVE NOW BEEN 400,000 REPORTS OF SIGHTINGS WORLDWIDE. IN 1978 THE UNITED NATIONS CALLED ON THE GOVERNMENTS OF ALL COUNTRIES *TO BE ON FULL ALERT FOR SIGHTINGS AND TO ESTABLISH UFO INVESTIGATION BODIES.
THE MAINLAND SET UP ITS OWN UFO INVESTIGATION BODY, CURO, IN 1978, WHICH IS NOW A MEMBER OF THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT-SUPPORTED CHINA ASSOCIATION FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY.
CURO HAS 3,600 MEMBERS AND MILLIONS OF FANS NATIONWIDE.
(ENDALL) 070836 990712.008 07/1019Z DEC
#0981
Approved for Release Date MAY 2800 Not linked to a story yet.
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 1 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.