China announces its preparing to shoot down a UFO

Reports are coming out from China about local authorities spotting an unknown object flying near a port city.

The news comes from Global Times and Sky News Asia Correspondent Brent O'Halloran, which both said Chinese authorities detected the object near the coastal city of Rizhao, located on the Yellow Sea. The Global Times Twitter post states that Chinese authorities reminded fishermen to be safe out on the water and that maritime authorities were preparing to shoot it down.

The claims of an unknown object appearing near China come after the nation claimed its weather balloon was purely for civilian use only, or more specifically, "meteorological research". China said the balloon was blown off course and criticized the US for shooting it down when it entered US airspace off the coast of South Carolina last week.

• Read more: US says China is lying over mystery balloon that was 'clearly for intelligence'

After recovering the wreckage, US officials claimed the balloon carried several devices capable of intelligence operations, with Pentagon officials saying it was "being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States." Notably, the Pentagon said that a second Chinese surveillance balloon was spotted over Latin America on Thursday.

"Local maritime authorities in East China's Shandong Province announced on Sunday that they had spotted an unidentified flying object in waters near the coastal city of Rizhao in the province and were preparing to shoot it down, reminding fishermen to be safe via messages," wrote the Global Times on Twitter.

For more information on the recent unknown objects being spotted over North America, check out the below links.

• Read more: US government drops update on car-sized UFO shot down over Alaska
• Read more: Elon Musk says the recent UFO sightings are his alien friends
• Read more: US fighter jet shoots down UFO invading Canadian airspace, officials confirm
• Read more: UFO detected over this US state causes government to close airspace