India and China have been locked in a bitter border clash in eastern Ladakh since May. (Figurative)
India on Tuesday dismissed claims by a Chinese professor that China was using microwave weapons to defeat Indian forces in an alleged border clash in the disputed Ladakh region.
According to Indian officials, China is spreading “false news” about the use of microwave weapons, referring to a Beijing professor’s claim that Chinese forces “turned mountain tops into a microwave oven” during a recent clash with India that allowed Beijing to regain two key hills in the disputed border region, the Washington Examiner reported.
“It is pure and poor psyops from China,” said an Indian official.
The Indian military issued a denial on Tuesday, saying they continue to control the high ground.
“The claims cited by these media reports are false,” reads a graphic tweeted by the Indian military. “No such incident has taken place in Ladakh.”
Articles in the media on the use of microwave weapons in eastern Ladakh are without foundation. The news is FALSE. pic.twitter.com/Lf5AGuiCW0
– ADG PI – INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) November 17, 2020
According to the Washington Examiner, the Beijing-based professor claimed that Chinese forces used the weapons to fight while honoring a decades-long agreement that the two nuclear-armed neighbors would not use firearms in border disputes.
“Within 15 minutes, everyone who was occupying the hills started vomiting … They couldn’t stand up so they fled. That’s how we got back on the ground,” said Jin Canrong, professor of international relations at Renmin University, according to a UK Newspaper.
The professor claimed that the attack occurred on August 29, but the Indian official said that never happened.
“If they took us from the heights, why does China keep asking India to withdraw from this heights?” the source replied. “Our soldiers and tanks / equipment are still there, and we have not come down from the heights.”
Indian officials had acknowledged in early September that Chinese forces had taken a “provocative” step on August 29, yet Chinese officials at the time appeared to acknowledge that India continued to control the area, the Washington Examiner reported.
“We urge India to strictly discipline its border troops, stop all provocations at once, immediately withdraw all personnel it illegally trespassed [the unofficial boundary of the disputed area]and stop taking any action that may increase tensions or complicate things, “said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying in early September.
It is unclear why the Chinese professor would make such a claim.
“It could just be bravado or the platform to use to launch the psyops,” the Indian official said.
Chinese and Indian troops have been fighting since the beginning of May along the Royal Line of Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
The situation throughout LAC deteriorated in June following the clash in the Galwan Valley in which both sides suffered casualties.
Twenty Indian soldiers died in the line of duty in the violent clash on June 15-16. It occurred as a result of an attempt by Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during the de-escalation in eastern Ladakh.
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