Expert Claims Chinese Army Used Microwave Weapons to Attack Indian Soldiers During Border Clash

Indian army convoys make their way towards Leh, bordering China, in Gagangir, India on June 17, 2020. TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP via Getty Images

The Chinese military deployed microwave pulse weapons to take back a region occupied by Indian soldiers during a border clash in the Himalayas, according to a Chinese scholar who may have inadvertently divulged classified information.

Jin Canrong, the associate dean of the School of International Relations at the Renmin University of China, claimed in a seminar held on Nov. 11 that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had, without firing a single bullet, successfully forced Indian soldiers to retreat and thus took back “two mountain tops” around Pangong Tso Lake in the Ladakh region of the Himalayas, a disputed border territory between the two countries.

The video of the seminar recently went viral on Chinese social media. In the video, Jin told his students that on Aug. 29, the Indian military sent about 1,500 “Tibetan Special Forces” to raid and occupy two mountain tops on the southern bank of Pangong Tso Lake. Chinese soldiers were ordered to take back the territory, but had to comply with an old agreement that prohibits firing guns.

“So, after talking with other PLA divisions they came up with a fancy idea,” Jin said. “They placed microwave weapons at the foothills and turned the mountain tops into two ‘microwave ovens.’ About 15 minutes later, the Indian soldiers began to vomit and were unable to stand up. Chinese soldiers reclaimed both areas after Indian troops retreated.”

Microwave weapons emit electromagnetic pulses that debilitate the target with highly focused energy. The Chinese soldiers likely aimed at the mountain tops when they activated the microwave weapons at the foothills.

According to Chinese-language edition of Radio France Internationale, Indian media outlets described the details of the same military confrontation that Jin mentioned, and suspected that Indian troops were attacked by sound or microwave pulses.

According to the report, the Indian soldiers experienced nausea, vomiting, and insomnia on the night of the suspected attack. Many were on the verge of a mental breakdown when they didn’t know what was happening to them. Indian commanders decided to abandon the two mountain tops because every soldier was incapacitated. After they retreated from the high ground, the symptoms disappeared, according to the Indian media.

China has engaged in sound and microwave weaponry R&D for a number of years. The first public display of its microwave weapon was at the 2014 Air Show in Zhuhai city, Guangdong Province, when a WB-1 directed-energy microwave weapon was exhibited. It directs millimeter-wave beams to attack targets half a mile away, causing overwhelming pains by heating water molecules underneath the skin.

In September 2019, Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that it had developed the first hand-held sonic weapon in the world, and this rifle-like device would soon enter mass production, intended for police to use for crowd control.

Jin’s seminar video caused heated discussions among Chinese netizens, and many recalled the “mysterious attack” incidents targeting U.S. diplomats in Cuba and in Guangzhou, China.

Between 2016 and 2018, the U.S. consulate employees and their families in China and Cuba reported hearing piercing sounds, and then experiencing headaches and nausea. Upon returning to the United States, some were verified to have incurred brain injuries. The U.S. government suspected it was due to an electromagnetic or microwave attack.