Indian government denies reports that Chinese used microwave weapons in Ladakh

The Indian government on Tuesday night dismissed reports that the Chinese military had used microwave weapons against Indian soldiers during the border clash in eastern Ladakh, forcing them to withdraw.

British newspaper The times, among other publications, reported Tuesday that a professor at Renmin University in Beijing had claimed during a conference that Chinese troops turned two strategic hills “into a microwave oven”, forcing Indian soldiers to retreat. These positions were “retaken” by Chinese soldiers without an exchange of fire, the professor added, according to The times.

The newspaper did not provide corroboration for these claims.

Later Tuesday, India’s Press Information Office disputed the report. “Some international news portals have posted misleading headlines and reported unsubstantiated claims related to the India-China border clash in Ladakh,” the Press Information Office said in a tweet. “This claim is false, ADGPI [Additional Directorate General of Public Information] has clarified that no such incident has occurred. Beware of that misinformation. ”

The standoff along the Royal Line of Control between India and China has been stalled since May, when Chinese troops moved in to take control of territory that had been patrolled by Indian soldiers for decades. The initial skirmishes led to a pitched battle, without firearms, in June in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed. Beijing, however, refused to reveal the number of victims on its side. Since then, at least nine rounds of dialogue have taken place between the two countries, but there has been no resolution.

The times The report quoted Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations, as saying that Chinese soldiers fired a microwave gun from the foot of the hills and “turned the top of the mountain into a microwave oven.” Microwave weapons are equipped with high frequency electromagnetic pulses or beams that are aimed and cause irritation and pain by heating human tissue when focused.

The newspaper did not provide details on how Jin might have access to this information, which, if true, would represent a major shift in engagement between the Indian and Chinese soldiers.

The professor added that the People’s Liberation Army had “marvelously seized” the land without disobeying the rule of not shooting live, which is part of the rules of engagement between the two countries. “We didn’t make it public because we solved the problem wonderfully,” Jin said, according to The times. “They [India] They didn’t advertise it either, because they lost miserably. “

After the microwave weapons were used against the Indian troops, they began vomiting within 15 minutes, according to the professor. Unable to stand up, the Indian soldiers soon escaped, after which the Chinese forces “took the ground again,” Jin said.

The Chinese professor, in his lecture, said that India launched a surprise attack on August 29 by deploying a team of Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel to two critical hills south of Pangong Tso Lake. The times reported. Jin added that the Chinese western theater command “was under enormous pressure” and wanted the positions to be brought back under his control without triggering.

The professor said that it would not have been possible for Chinese soldiers to do so in combat at an altitude of 5,600 meters. “Then they came up with the clever idea to use microwave weapons,” Jin said, according to the British newspaper.

Microwave weapons

During the Cold War, the United States was concerned that Russia was trying to turn microwave radiation into mind control weapons. The U.S. military has also tried to develop weapons that can emit painfully loud explosions and even spoken words into people’s heads, according to a 2018 report in The New York Times. This weaponry is intended to disable the attackers and carry out a psychological warfare.

Experts believe that these weapons may have caused the symptoms and ailments that affected more than three dozen US diplomats and their families in Cuba and China in 2016 and 2018. The episodes had sparked a diplomatic rift between Washington and Havana.

In 2016, more than 30 U.S. State Department employees and their families reported hearing high-pitched noises in their homes and hotel rooms near the embassy. These people soon suffered nausea and mild brain damage, but authorities were unable to identify the cause behind it.

In 2018, US officials in Guangzhou, China, had reported strange symptoms similar to a concussion or minor brain injury. However, no links could be established with the episode in Cuba.

The United States has developed an Active Denial System, which it says is a “non-lethal weapons program” that does not use a laser as a source of directed energy. The US Department of Defense Non-Lethal Weapons Program also said “ADS provides a rapid and reversible heating sensation of the skin surface that does not penetrate the target.”

The Defense Research and Development Organization of India had announced in September that it was planning to develop Directed Energy Weapons, or DEWs, employing high-energy lasers and microwaves. The national program is likely to comprise short, medium and long term objectives, with the ultimate goal of developing weapon variants up to 100 kW, The times of India reported in September, citing sources.