BEIJING — A US government employee posted in southern China has signs of possible brain injury after reporting disturbing sounds and sensations, the State Department said Wednesday, in events that seemed to draw parallels with mysterious ailments that struck US diplomats in Cuba.
The State Department warning, issued through the US Consulate in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, advised US citizens in China to seek medical help if they felt similar symptoms. But it said that no other cases had been reported.
“A US government employee in China recently reported subtle and vague, but abnormal, sensations of sound and pressure,’’ the health alert said. “We do not currently know what caused the reported symptoms and we are not aware of any similar situations in China, either inside or outside of the diplomatic community.’’
The employee was working in Guangzhou, and “reported experiencing a variety of physical symptoms’’ from late 2017 until April, Jinnie Lee, a spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Beijing, said in an e-mailed response to questions.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that medical teams were heading to Guangzhou to address the issue.
“The medical indications are very similar and entirely consistent with the medical indications that have taken place to Americans working in Cuba,’’ he said.
The embassy was told Friday “that the clinical findings of this evaluation matched mild traumatic brain injury,’’ according to Lee, who said she could not reveal any more details to protect the employee’s privacy. Mild traumatic brain injury can show up as headache, dizziness, nausea, poor memory, and a general foggy sensation.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately answer faxed questions about the ill American, but Pompeo said the Trump administration had asked the Chinese government for assistance in an investigation, “and they have committed to honoring their commitments under the Vienna convention.’’
The Vienna convention requires that countries protect diplomats stationed in their nations.
The US statements did not say that officials suspected any foul play by Chinese authorities. Even so, if the illness remains unsolved, it could become a complicating irritant at a time when Beijing and Washington are already embroiled in tensions over trade and investment, and when US distrust of China is growing.
The echoes of the burst of illnesses suffered by US diplomats in Cuba may add to those complications.
Starting in late 2016, diplomats posted to the US Embassy in Havana began complaining of hearing strange, wrenching noises and suffering symptoms like headaches, dizziness, and loss of hearing. A total of 24 Americans were confirmed as suffering from the attacks, most of them diplomats and some diplomats’ spouses.
The cause of the illnesses in Cuba has not been confirmed, but US suspicions that the Cuban government was behind them, or at least knew who was, have added to a sharp deterioration in ties under the Trump administration. The United States has expelled at least 17 Cuban diplomats to underscore its view that Cuba bears some responsibility.
