China’s military used microwave weapons to force Indian troops to retreat during a months-long border standoff in the Himalayas, according to an account that has emerged in Beijing.
Its forces had turned two strategic hilltops that had been occupied by Indian soldiers ‘into a microwave oven’, forcing them to retreat and allowing the positions to be retaken without an exchange of conventional fire, according to Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at Beijing-based Renmin University.
In a lecture he said that the People’s Liberation Army “beautifully” seized the ground without violating a no-live-shot rule governing the rules of engagement in the high-altitude standoff between the two Asian powers. Microwave weapons focus high frequency electro-magnetic pulses or beams at targets and cause irritation and pain by heating up any human tissue in its way.
“We didn’t publicise it because we solved the problem beautifully,” Mr Jin said. “They [India] didn’t publicise it, either, because they lost so miserably.” The professor said that Chinese troops fired the weapon from the bottom of the hills and “turned the mountain tops into a microwave oven”. “In 15 minutes, those occupying the hilltops all began to vomit,” he said. “They couldn’t stand up, so they fled. This was how we retook the ground.” Since April the two sides have been locked in a border dispute in the Ladakh region, which culminated in a bloody hand-to-hand combat in the Galwan River valley in June that killed 20 Indian troops and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers. The two countries have a longstanding dispute over their border. This time, Beijing and Delhi have accused each other of encroaching on the other’s territory. Despite rounds of high-level talks, the two militaries have shown no sign of disengagement but are seeking to strengthen their positions, while sticking to the no-live-shot rule to avoid any serious military escalation and a repeat of the 1962 Sino-Indian War. Microwave weapons began to attract attention in recent years as the United States researched radio-frequency, or electromagnetic pulse weapons. The weapons use high-energy electromagnetic radiation to attack targets, to destroy electronics and missile guidance systems or to harm humans. This may be the first use against hostile troops. The US deployed its own vehicle-mounted microwave weapon, called an Active Denial System, to Afghanistan ten years ago but it was withdrawn, reportedly without being used in combat. It is suspected that microwave weapons were used in an attack against US diplomats and their families in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou in 2018. They may also have been responsible for the symptoms described by US and Canadian diplomats posted to Havana from 2016. In his lecture, Professor Jin said that India mounted a surprise attack on August 29 when it deployed a team of Tibetan soldiers, known for their mountaineering skills, to seize two critical hilltops on the southern bank of the Pangong Tso Lake. “At the time, the western theatre command [of the People’s Liberation Army] was under huge pressure,” the scholar said. “These two hilltops are very important but we’d lost them. “The central military commission was quite furious, ‘How could you be so careless as to let India seize the hilltops?’, so it ordered the ground be taken back, but it also demanded that no single shot be fired.” Professor Jin added it was almost impossible for the Chinese soldiers, most of whom were from the lowlands, to wage any effective combat at an altitude of 5,600 metres. “Frankly speaking . . their bodies won’t stand it. “Then they came up with the clever idea to use microwave weapons.” Most people exposed to microwave radiation report significant discomfort but no permanent ill-effects. However, some studies suggest that long-term exposure may have a carcinogenic effect.