"The spaceship then began to fly back and forth over the summit of Tatung Mountain. By this time the lights were flashing very brightly and were hard to miss. Everyone on the platform was looking at the lights. I shouted `it's a UFO,' but I don't think anyone understood as I said UFO in English. The UFO then began gyrating incredibly quickly and disappeared just as suddenly as it had appeared. The people on the platform were all looking at each other not knowing what they'd just seen. But I knew. It was defiantly a UFO. No airplane would move in the way that object did."
Shortly after this encounter Li was invited to appear on a TV show, where he was asked to tell his story. Even though there had been a dozen or so witnesses to the events of that August night in 1987, only Li was willing to brave the media's attention.
He now wishes he had backed out, as both host and viewers found his tale incredible.
"I think the people on the show thought the whole thing was a joke," admits Li. "Which is not surprising. Before I saw that light in the sky I was skeptical about the existence of UFOs. After that, however, I changed my ideas pretty quickly."
In the weeks following Li's 1987 sighting, UFOs were reported in the skies over Taipei, Shanghai and Kyushu in Japan.
Alien artifacts
The second case to be made public long after the fact made the pages of the Liberty Times (自由時報) on 26 March, 2001. This report involved more than a UFO seen in the distance.
It was reported that 18 years ago, a student at Touchou primary school (頭州國小) in Hsinwu (新屋), Taoyuan County (桃園縣), was playing in the playground when she came across an object measuring roughly 30cm in length. The student took the object to one of her teachers. The teacher thought it to be a rubber toy and let the child take it home.
On returning home the student's brother cut open the object, and found a flesh-like substance under the outer layer. The object was clearly not made of rubber, and the children left it outside the house, thinking that if it were an alien object then other aliens would come and collect it. Nobody came, however, and after three days the object had rotted.
Ho will be the first to admit that this tale seems rather Hollywood and the lack of photographic or physical evidence makes the entire story appear bogus. The fact that there was more than one eyewitness, however, means that this is one file Ho will be keeping open, regardless of any personal doubts.
Although sightings of supposed UFOs are set to rise over the following week, the future could be a bleak one for Ho, his organization and others like it. Sightings of UFOs are at an all-time low. And according to Ho, they will continue to decrease in numbers in the future. Not that Ho is planning an early retirement.
"Sightings will become less frequent as time goes by. You only have to look at the records to see that numbers have been dropping since the 1980s. It's probably got a lot to do with the technology on Earth. The pilots of the UFOs are aware that they will be seen by somebody and possibly attacked," says Ho fervently.
"They are still out there, though, and will continue to watch us, but from a distance. As for exploration, well, I reckon extraterrestrials will continue to send spaceships to explore the universe, but they will just visit other planets and stars now. The lack of UFOs doesn't spell the end of our organization, though. Questions still need to be answered concerning all the UFO sightings that have taken place. After all, I'd like to know where the UFOs Tsai Chang-hung and all the other people have seen came from and what they wanted with Taiwan."
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