US Employee in China Reported Strange Sounds, Pressure

A US government employee in southern China reported abnormal sensations of sound and pressure, The Associated Press reported the State Department as saying on Wednesday, recalling similar experiences among American diplomats in Cuba who later fell ill.

In an emailed notice to American citizens in China, the department said it wasn’t currently known what caused the symptoms in the city of Guangzhou, where an American consulate is located.

“A US government employee in China recently reported subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure,” the notice said. “The US government is taking these reports seriously and has informed its official staff in China of this event.”

The department said it wasn’t aware of any similar situations in China, either within the diplomatic community or among others. It didn’t further identify the person with the symptoms or say when they had been detected.

China’s foreign ministry and National Health Commission did not immediately respond to faxed questions about the report.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking in Washington to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the medical indications of the incident in Guangzhou “are very similar and entirely consistent with the medical indications of the Americans working in Havana.”