Did China use microwave weapon to cook Indian troops alive? Beijing expert says it helped them control Himalayan border
While border tensions between India and China continue despite a series of high-level meetings, a professor based in China has made a chilling claim. According to him, the Chinese troops used ‘microwave’ weapons to make their Indian counterparts sick and forced them to retreat during a standoff in the Himalayas.
According to Jin Canrong, an international studies expert in Beijing, the electromagnetic weapons that cook human tissue of enemy soldiers “turned the mountain tops into a microwave oven” and made the Indian troops vomit, The Times reported. In a recent lecture, Canrong, who teaches at Renmin University, said China used the microwave weapon to regain control of a land on the southern bank of the Pangong Tso Lake in Ladakh.
The microwave weapons heat water molecules the same way as the kitchen appliance does, targeting water under the human skin to cause extreme pain to those located up to 0.6 miles away, says the report.
The 57-year-old Wuhan-born professor praised the Chinese forces for “beautifully” executing the plan which made the Indian troops retreat without violating the ban on gunfire along the border, which is a major reason for dispute between the two Asian powers. The two nations fought a war in 1962 over their border disputes that resulted in a decisive Chinese victory.
'In 15 minutes, those occupying hilltops began to vomit'
“In 15 minutes, those occupying the hilltops all began to vomit,” Canrong said, adding: “They couldn’t stand up, so they fled. This was how we retook the ground.” The use of microwave weapons is known to be the first of its kind on a battlefield.
As per The Times report, the weapons were said to have been deployed in the later part of August, weeks after a deadly brawl featuring rocks and clubs broke out between the two sides, killing at least 20 Indian soldiers and pushed the two nuclear powers close to a war.
China calls the microwave weapons “non-lethal, energy-directed weapons” that cause an “instant burning sensation and make the targets run away”, it has been reported. China’s Poly WB-1 is a type of microwave weapon which was first displayed at an air show in 2014 and thought to have been handed over to China’s naval forces. The US also has its own version called the Active Denial System which, however, could be used for controlling and dispersing crowds and protecting patrols and convoys and has apparently been never used against troops. It was deployed to Afghanistan but withdrawn later because of fears of a political backlash. The Pentagon called the weapon, unveiled in 2007, as “the first non-lethal, directed-energy, counter-personnel system with an extended range greater than currently fielded non-lethal weapons”.
Canrong also said the Chinese decided to use the lethal weapon because the battleground was at a high altitude where it was difficult to take on Tibetan mountaineering specialists. Gunfire is banned under an old agreement between the two giant neighbors although they fired warning shots in September and blamed each other over them.
The two nations have deployed tens of thousands of troops since the tensions started. The latest crisis comes three years since the two sides came face to face over Doklam and refused to budge for more than two months.