Both sides have been engaged in a bitter dispute over the border that separates the two nations in the Ladakh region this year, following a fatal clash in April which left several dead. Forces have since bedded in for a harsh winter, with troops, artillery, tanks and air defence systems in place.
This is despite ongoing talks between military commanders on both sides who are attempting to settle the dispute.
Now, a Beijing-based international relations expert has claimed China has made use of highly-focussed beams of radiation in order to drive away Indian forces.
Use of such weapons have been seen by analysts as a way around using conventional weaponry such as guns.
The use of guns and explosives is banned on the disputed border following an agreement between India and China in 1996.
Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at Beijing’s Renmin University, made the claim of microwave weapons use in a lecture, The Times has reported.
He described how China’s People’s Liberation Army “beautifully” gained territory in two strategic hilltops that had been occupied by Indian forces without an exchange of gunfire.
The professor added: “We didn’t publicise it because we solved the problem beautifully.” In contrast, he claimed India “lost miserably”.
Mr Jin said Chinese forces had deployed the microwave weapons to the bottom of the hills and aimed them at the peaks.
He claimed Indian forces on the hilltops began to “vomit” as a result of the microwave beams within 15 minutes and subsequently retreated.
The Times reports this may be the first time such weapons have been used ‘against hostile troops’.
Other countries such as the United States have used electromagnetic radiation weapons before.
They use high-energy beams of radiation which are capable of harming humans but also destroying electronics or missile systems.
Such weapons have been referred to as ‘direct energy’ weapons. Some, instead of using electromagnetic radiation, use sound waves.
There is much speculation of such weapons having been used before, though usually against diplomats in foreign nations.
In 2016, US embassy employees in Cuba complained of headaches, nausea, nosebleeds and feeling sudden pressures.
They allege a hidden sonic weapon was used against them, and the case has become known as the first in what is referred to as ‘Havana Syndrome’.
Similar incidents have affected several other US officials in countries such as China and Russia, where the reported illnesses are specific to certain rooms within buildings.
One sceptic, Robert Bartholomew, a medical sociologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, told Australia’s ABC News ‘it’s just science fiction’.
