China PLA Air Force UAP Reports — Declassified Incident Series

People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) pilots and radar operators began formally documenting UAP encounters in Chinese airspace from the early 1970s. Encounters were reported over Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and coastal provinces including Guangdong. The PLAAF maintained internal incident reporting protocols. In the 1980s and 1990s, Chinese science publications and researchers began accessing partial summaries of declassified or leaked PLAAF incident reports. Chinese astronomer Shi Bo authored research compiling documented Chinese military and civilian UAP incidents. Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers formally addressed the phenomenon in the 1980s. The Chinese Astronomical Society of China maintained a UAP monitoring subcommittee. Chinese civil aviation authority CAAC received parallel civilian pilot reports. The PLAAF incidents include multiple pilot visual observations corroborated by ground radar returns, as well as formation encounters involving multiple craft. During the 1990s, China's People's Liberation Army declassified select incident summaries, and Chinese state media (including Xinhua and China Daily) reported on the PLAAF's acknowledgment of the phenomenon. China's openness about military UAP increased in the 2000s, with CAAC's public documentation of the 2010 Hangzhou airport incident a direct continuation of this pattern.