It’s some kind of anniversary in Urumqi today, but the local papers aren’t saying anything about it.
The Xinjiang Metropolis Daily, a commercial paper based in Urumqi, ran a front-page photo of “Friendship 2010,” a joint anti-terrorism exercise currently underway in Ningxia with the participation of both China and Pakistan.
At the top of the paper, above a lead headline concerning a hotline for informing on official corruption, is the intriguing question, “Did Xinjiang Receive a Night Visit from a UFO?”
On June 30, residents of Urumqi and Karamay snapped photos of an unidentified flying object rocketing across the night sky. A reporter happened to witness the UFO:
At roughly 23:45 on June 30, this reporter was about to board at the Hongshan station in Urumqi when suddenly someone pointed at the sky. Following the person’s finger, this reporter was able to see a round, luminous object moving slowly east across the sky, with light trailing behind it in a long fan shape.
Song Huagang, secretary-general of the Astronomical Society of Xinjiang, identified the UFO as a Minuteman III ICBM that was test-launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara, California that night toward a target in the Marshall Islands.
The front cover of a competing commercial daily, the Morning Post, features a photo of a military museum with the headline “Patriotic Tourism in Xinjiang Heats Up.”
- Xinjiang Metropolis Daily (Chinese): Did Xinjiang Receive a Night Visit from a UFO?
- NewsCore: Vandenberg Air Force Base Conducts 1,900th Missile Test