On Wednesday, an American working at the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou was reportedly injured by an “abnormal” sound directed at the embassy, according to Reuters:
An American citizen working at the U.S. consulate in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou has reported suffering from “abnormal” sounds and pressure leading to a mild brain injury, the U.S. embassy said on Wednesday. The embassy, which issued a health alert to Americans living in China, said it could not link the case to health issues suffered by U.S. government staff in Cuba dating back to late 2016.
The staffer reportedly suffered a “mild traumatic brain injury.” The embassy has now released a health alert:
While in China, if you experience any unusual acute auditory or sensory phenomena accompanied by unusual sounds or piercing noises, do not attempt to locate their source. Instead, move to a location where the sounds are not present.
This amounts to the second such incident in a Communist country — in January, State Department doctor Charles Rosenfarb reported to the Senate that Cuban embassy members had “suffered headaches, hearing loss, disorientation and some loss of cognitive ability.” That incident resulted in the United States withdrawing some embassy staffers from Cuba.