China's Sonic War

More U.S. Casualties Evacuated From China

By Steven Lee MyersAmericans employed at the United States Consulate in Guangzhou, China, have reported symptoms similar to those experienced by diplomats in Cuba.

BEIJING — The State Department has evacuated at least 11 Americans from China after abnormal sounds or sensations were reported by government employees at the United States Consulate in the southern city of Guangzhou, officials said, deepening a mystery that has so far confounded investigators.
At least eight Americans associated with the consulate in Guangzhou have now been evacuated, according to one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
In addition, one employee from the consulate in Shanghai and two from the embassy in Beijing were sent to the United States for further medical tests after undergoing examinations that the department encouraged when the first report of illnesses in Guangzhou surfaced in April, the official said.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raised the issue with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in a telephone call that otherwise focused on the diplomacy surrounding North Korea’s nuclear program, according to a statement released Friday morning in Beijing.
The cases in Guangzhou — and now Shanghai and Beijing — are similar to a wave of illnesses that struck Americans working at the embassy in Havana, Cuba, beginning in fall 2016. 

Another American there was reported last week to have symptoms, bringing the total number of those afflicted by what have been described as “sonic attacks” to 25.
It remains unclear whether the cases in Shanghai and Beijing — which have not been previously reported — were related to what officials described as “subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure” experienced at an apartment tower in Guangzhou where a number of consulate employees live.
The sounds and sensations in Cuba, and now China, have been variously attributed to sophisticated electronic eavesdropping efforts or a form of aural harassment, with some pointing fingers at Russia or China. 

Other experts have raised the possibility of environmental factors or even mass hysteria.
American officials in China declined to comment or did not respond to inquiries. 

But in a written response on Saturday, the State Department said that “several staff and family members” had been sent to the United States for further evaluation. 

The statement suggested that some might have been evacuated for “other unrelated issues.”
The statement said that only one of those evacuated so far had been diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury: the first employee who was evacuated in April after complaining of health issues caused by the sounds and sensations.
Some of those evacuated have been sent to the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, where researchers examined the cases from Cuba. State Department spokesmen would not elaborate.
After the injuries appeared in Cuba, the Trump administration expelled 15 Cuban diplomats, saying Cuban officials had failed to adequately protect American diplomats. 

But the government there denied any involvement.
So have the Chinese. 

The department’s statement on Friday referred to “ongoing cooperation” with the Chinese in investigating “the health-related incident” in Guangzhou.
After the cases surfaced there, senior officials from the department flew to China to investigate, while Mr. Pompeo appointed a committee to review “unexplained health incidents” affecting American diplomats and employees abroad. 

The deputy secretary of state, John J. Sullivan, is leading the review, assisted by representatives from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Justice Department, but officials have said they remain flummoxed.

China's Sonic War

U.S. Consulate under Chinese sonic attacks: More U.S. casualties have been evacuated from Guangzhou
BY C. DANIELLE BIZIER 

More U.S. citizens have been evacuated from a U.S. consulate in Guangzhou, China, after suffering what appears to be the same strange, sound-related illness that afflicted consulate workers in Cuba. The New York Times reported that consulate worker Mark Lenzi and his wife heard strange noises over the course of several months before falling ill with what they described as neurological symptoms. 

On Wednesday night they were flown to the U.S. with their children, including a three-year-old son who was also affected.
Speaking to The Washington Post that same day, Lenzi described the sound as being like “marbles bouncing and hitting a floor then rolling on an incline with a static sound.” 

The Lenzis reached out to their neighbors to see if the sound was coming from their home but the neighbor denied it. 

Several months after the sounds began, the Lenzis began to develop migraine like headaches and suffer from sleep deprivation. 

Medical professionals at the consulate prescribed sleeping pills to help with the insomnia.
In May, Lenzi found out that the same neighbor had been evacuated after exhibiting the same symptoms. 

He was checked and diagnosed with a “mild traumatic brain injury,” the State Department said in a statement. 

That statement also said the government did not know of any other cases — which according to Lenzi, was a lie. 

He told The Washington Post that he he’d filed several reports with both the consulate and the State Department.
Lenzi also contends that his security clearance was frozen after he attempted to bring attention to the issue, effectively barring him from work at the consulate, and that he is now calling for the resignation of the U.S. ambassador to China, who is based in Beijing.
The New York Times is also reporting that a State Department medical team flew to Guangzhou and is performing tests on other employees and their family members — some 170 workers in total at the site, plus their family members.
If this case sound eerily familiar, it should. 

In 2016, 24 people — all embassy workers and their families there – suffered the same symptoms at the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba. 

Those symptoms included dizziness, headaches, tinnitus, fatigue, cognitive issues, visual problems, ear complaints and hearing loss, and difficulty sleeping, the State Department said at the time. 

Tests concluded that they had suffered injuries consistent with concussion or minor brain injury.
In the wake of the initial illnesses, speculation on the cause included the possibility of targeted sonic attacks that might cause such disruption. 

The U.S., blaming Havana, expelled Cuban dignitaries following the incident. 

Additional theories include bacterial poisoning, neurotoxins, and surveillance devices that emit disabling sounds.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the launch of The Health Incidents Response Task Force, which had been created to respond to the unexplained ailments, including testing workers and families at the Guangzhou consulate. 

The task force’s role includes “identification and treatment of affected personnel and family members, investigation and risk mitigation, messaging, and diplomatic outreach.”
On May 24, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a regular press briefing that China had investigated the initial May 16 case, but had not found a reason for the illness. 

The Russians have a history of using toxins against the foreign diplomatic corps, but the Chinese have stayed primarily in the lanes of active and aggressive surveillance. 

Some attachés tell stories of playing along with the status quo by asking aloud in their homes for help finding missing items such as car keys and glasses. 

They would leave the home after the request for a few moments and return to find the items placed conspicuously on their kitchen table. 

The Chinese have never been shy about making sure American diplomats knew they were under constant monitoring — though before now, the most aggressive tales involved State Department officials returning home to find someone had defected in their toilet and left it without flushing.
The potential sonic attacks we are now beginning to see are more reminiscent of Cold War era Soviet tactics — but perhaps par for the course of the ever-growing tensions.