http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/90872/7058628.html

Supposedly the object has been identified (thus an IFO?) but the details are not being made known because of a military connection. How convenient!!! lol

A Russian launch still that low? Hangzhou is pretty close to the sea on the eastern side of China. I'm not sure of all the locations that the Progress freighters are launched from, I know Kazakhstan is one place. If from there it would probably be close to 2000 miles downrange by the time it got over Hangzhou and it looks pretty low in the picture. Either that or I'm looking at the picture differently and seeing something else…the flame portion appears to be under the craft rather than behind it.

Was another Progress launched just recently? There was one that was supposed to dock with the ISS the first part of this month but it flew by the first time…I think they finally got it to dock successfully the second time.

I'd easily go rocket on the second one, the first one, though, doesn't have that same look to me. I think the issue for me is that reddish body that seems to be above the flame (with the two sets of two bright spots) In that shot it looks like the flame is about the same length as the object and underneath the object rather than jetting out behind. It may not be exactly beneath it, it seems to be shifted about 1/6th the length of the object. Photo 1 and 2 in their slideshow don't really look to even be of the same object to me. There seems to be a definitely discernible object in the first photo and I would think something launched from Kazakhstan would be a lot higher off the ground at that point!

Cometlike fireball as it's described would certainly lend itself to a rocket launch. The first image is just a bit "odd" to me to be in that context.

The 1st one is claimed to be the one over Hangzhou and seems to be the one showing up in most places. I've seen one set of about 5 or 6 images on another site, they include the 1st one but then a bunch of others showing almost "classic" UFO traits and I suspect those are not trustworthy. There has already been at least one youtube of a nice saucer shape zipping around in daylight that is fake, too. I agree, the two above may not really be of the same event. Which is real, though? Perhaps they both are real, just of different events. If it comes down to one being genuine and not, I'd put my money on the 2nd one!

There was a Progress (#38) launch on 29 June (the one in the Shuttle Reprieve thread that flew by the ISS the first time, and later docked successfully) That one was launched from Kazakhstan. Preliminary orbit was achieved after 9 minutes. The next Progress launch that I see is #39 which is scheduled for 8 September. However there was a supposed launch yesterday (10th) from Baikonur (the Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan) of an EchoStar. I can't find any launches between 29 June and 10 July, though. The launch page was last updated on 2 July and the first launch listed is the EchoStar yesterday. Which doesn't mean that one was missed, of course.

Now, a Chinese launch…probably would not show up in the launch listings. Could still be low enough when it was over Hangzhou. Would tie into the "military" explanation which was given and which was why it wasn't immediately identified/announced by the Gov.