Chinese authorities were preparing to fire down an unidentified flying object they had purportedly detected over the waters close to a major naval facility, international media reported quoting officials
The state-run Global Times reported on Sunday that local maritime officials in China’s eastern Shandong Province claimed to have sighted an “unidentified flying object” in the vicinity of the coastal city of Rizhao.
Various media reports said that the UFO was seen close to Qingdao, the location of the People’s Liberation Army’s main naval station Jianggezhuang Naval Base.
A Chinese news outlet, The Paper, was informed by a representative of the marine development administration that “relevant officials” were getting ready to shoot down the item.
Days after American fighter jets destroyed unidentified objects over distant Alaska and Canada, the sighting was reportedly made. A suspected Chinese spy balloon, roughly the size of three school buses, was shot down by the American military a week earlier off the coast of South Carolina after it had travelled across the country.
It was claimed by the Biden administration to be utilized for monitoring. According to China, the trip was for meteorological research.
Earlier, the US said that another unidentified object that was flying dangerously close to military installations and might have been used for surveillance was shot down.
On the orders of President Biden, it was shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan at 2:42 pm local time on Sunday, Sky News reported. Concerns were also raised regarding the US F-16 jet’s height and flight path as it fired a missile at 20,000 feet or so.
After objects were shot down in Alaska and Canada on Friday and Saturday, it marks the fourth occurrence in less than a week and the third in as many days.
A senior US official, speaking anonymously told Sky News, described the latest object as having “an octagonal structure with strings hanging off but no discernible payload”.
Before US and Canadian jets were ordered to intercept it, authorities blocked airspace over the lake, which is close to the Canadian border.
