US staffer suffers brain injury after ‘sound’ incident in China

WASHINGTON: A US government employee in China suffered brain trauma linked to ‘abnormal sounds’ that resembled the still-unexplained injuries that befell US and Canadian diplomats in Cuba last year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.

US and Chinese authorities are investigating after the unnamed American citizen, who was assigned to the southern city of Guangzhou, was diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI).

The US embassy in Beijing issued a health alert over the incident, while saying it does not know what caused the symptoms or of any similar situations in the country.

Last year 24 US diplomats and their family members in Cuba fell victim to mysterious ‘attacks’ that left them with injuries resembling brain trauma. Ten Canadian diplomats and their relatives also suffered a strange illness. Both countries scaled back their presence on the Caribbean island due to the problem, which continues to baffle investigators and has strained US diplomatic relations with Havana.

In Washington for talks with Pompeo, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the US should avoid politicising the case.

“We don’t want to see that this individual case would be magnified, complicated or even politicised,” Wang told reporters.

“China has been investigating this matter in a very responsible manner.”

“We haven’t found that any organisation or individual has carried out such a sonic influence,” Wang added, suggesting the US carry out an ‘internal’ probe into the case. — AFP