Post Op Sindoor, China ran drive to derail Rafale deals: US report

China conducted a covert disinformation campaign to undermine global sales of French Rafale fighter jets and push its own J-35 aircraft in the aftermath of the May India-Pakistan military clash, according to French intelligence assessments cited in a new US Congressional report.

The findings, part of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission’s annual report to Congress, say Beijing used fake social media accounts to circulate AI-generated and video-game-derived images falsely claimed to be “debris” from Indian Rafales allegedly shot down by Pakistan using Chinese-supplied weaponry.

As per the report, Chinese diplomats then leveraged the online misinformation to persuade Indonesia to halt a Rafale purchase already under way, an intervention Paris has privately described as one of Beijing’s most aggressive attempts yet to sabotage a Western defence sale.

The revelations come at a time when concerns over China’s growing influence in South Asian security crises have sharpened following its reported role in the May 7–10 border escalation between India and Pakistan, the most serious exchange of fire across the Line of Control in five decades. According to the Congressional report, China “opportunistically leveraged” Pakistan’s internal military crisis and the ensuing confrontation with India to test and market its latest weapons systems.

While India said Beijing supplied Pakistan with “live inputs” on Indian military positions during the fighting -- a charge Islamabad denied and China neither confirmed nor denied -- the episode showcased a suite of modern Chinese platforms in real-world combat for the first time.

Pakistan employed the HQ-9 air-defence system, PL-15 air-to-air missiles and J-10 fighters during the clash, enabling China to treat the conflict as a high-visibility field trial, the report notes. Beijing quickly moved to capitalise on the publicity, offering Islamabad 40 J-35 jets, KJ-500 airborne early-warning aircraft and ballistic missile-defence systems within weeks.

The report also highlights China’s dominance in Pakistan’s defence sourcing, supplying 82 per cent of its arms imports between 2019 and 2023 and increased dependence on Chinese hardware.