Article highlights from CHINA DAILY of the National News section. 12-12-2003

Ufos. flying saucers and ET conjure up images from Hollywood flims and blurred photos in tabloid newspapers. But a number of true beleivers in China, many of them highly educated, see merit in exploring ufos and alien encounters scientifically.

Meng Zhaoguo a 35 yr old tree grower from Wuchang City in Heilongjiang Province can still vividly describe the Steven Spieberg -type senario he claims to of witnessed nearly ten years ago: (1977) As he sat in a huge white, gleaming spaceship, a tall creature with a large head and eyes like light bulbs and clad in a seamless rubber suit perched on a metal sheet that hovered in the air. In a metalic-tinged voice, this interplanetary visitor communicated with the man via a television -like screen, predicting a collision between a comet and Jupiter.

As sensational as it sounds, Meng insists he was taken aboard the ship a month after being shocked by some waves emitted by a silver-coloured object on a mountain he and some other villagers attempted to appraoch in June 1994.

Such accounts have served to shroud ufology...in a kind of mysticism..often used when referring to..

The Chinese first learned about UFOS in 1978, when leading State newspaper the People's Daily ran an article about the phenomenon. Although many accounts of UFO sightings have appeared in the media in the ensuing two decades, the voices of doubt are as strong as the people's curiosity.

Despite the cynicism, more than 40 ufology associations have registered across the country,some 5000 beleivers not including the academics interested in UFOS..(90 percent of Dalian UFO Society for instance have college degrees--Beijing Ufo Society is ran by one of the top Chinese Officals--foot note.) With no State funding and little sponership , the comunity feels discrimated against and excluded from the main stream circles.. was at that time this article written..

Sceptics main demand seems simple enough, but satisfying it is harder: Show me the evidence. A photo or video footage , which can be easly favricated,is not sufficent. They want to see a real object, a flying saucer, something of a mission impossible for ufogists.

Describing ufologist as Romantics, Sima Nan, a popular science writer and a leading figure in the country's fight against pseudo science says the most important thing in scientific research is to base a study on concrete evidience and advoid subjectivism...those having ufo encounters all lack hard evidence to prove their claims....

Ufologists, however , believe their research to be significant as the country's space exploration program, even if it is not being taken seriously.If space exploration includes the search for alien civilzations, they argue UFO research can serve to suppliment it.

Tian Daojun, a professor at the Nanjing University of Aviation and Aeronautics, says the human fantasty is not totally meaningless in scientific research, as some UFO sceptics assume, pointing out that fanciful notions of human beings eventually put a man on the moon.

The numerous UFO sightings reported should never be ignored or denied. Tian says. Any information gleaned about the way a spacecraft functions might serve to upgrade scientific research , resulting in breakthroughs in aviation and aeronautics technology on Earth.

But what upsets UFO researchers the most is the suggestion that UFOs are nothing but mythology and ufology is just a new form of pseudo-science.

Ji Jianmin, a ufo researcher in Feixiang Country in norhtern China's Hebel Province, dismisses such assertions as too opinionated and unfriendly to UFO researchers and critiicizes detractors for their own unscientific approach to the subject. Ji a former high school art teacher ...became interested in UFs in the 80's. He firmly believes in the existence of civilizations on other planets as well as the potetential for a kind of psychic connection between residents of earth and aliens.....

.....The controversy surrounding UFOs is very natural, so long as each side does not force its ideas on the other, according Wu Jialu, a Shanghai aircraft expert.

..Wu .. Even within the UFO community , ufologists differ in their approaches to research, although they all consdier alien spacecraft and intelligence to be at the very heart of their research.

One school tends to focus on the more practical aspects. Some like Wu, expect to get inspiration by complemplating the mechanics of alien spacecraft as a means of improving Earth aircraft or even spaceships. Others, including Su Congbo, a seismologist in Taiyuan , captial of north China's Shanxi Province, are interested in finding out whether there is a connection between UFOs and natuaral phenomena such as earthquakes.

Beijing based ufologist Zhang Jingping stands for another school of thought in his persistent attempts to prove the existence not only of UFOs but of alien civilizations.

Zhang considers ufology his real career...A graduate of the Beijing University of Aviation and Aeronautics (BUAA) , Zhang says he has no doubt that visitors from other planets have had a considerable amount of contact with people on Earth. ...

In early Sept., Zhang invited police technicians and psychologists to subject Meng Zhaoguo to a lie detector test and hypnosis experiments in Beijing. Test results proved Meng was telling the truth. Zhang also believes the scars Meng bears from the incident, which doctors said could not possibly have been caused by common injuries or surgery, served as further evidence of ET encounter.

......Zhang does argue , however, that UFO research should not be fettered by the limitations of modern science and technology. "We need new conceptions in UFO research, as current science and technology theory also need improving" Cao Lixing a post graduate student majoring in computer science at BUAA, says proving the existence of UFOs or flying saucers is important to advancing serious study.." As long as the existence of such phenomena remains unproven, UFO research will never escape the bounds of skepticism," he says.......

Ok... we know UFO's are real and we know some secret gov. places have'em... Whether they work or not or we know how to decipher its ways we have know idea. Solar energy cars seem pretty alienish to me, maybe they were modeled from the idea somewhat/somehow... so yeah, we could be advancing without knowing.

So did he publicly make a statement that he was taking aboard a UFO and saw a comet hitting Jupiter? was this just prior to the actual comet hitting Jupiter or does he claim he was taken to Jupitor on the day it happened? Im assuming he's talking about Shoemaker-Levy's comet of 1994