According to the US Congress report, Pakistan’s claim of downing 6 Indian jets in the India-Pakistan conflict in May was false. China took advantage of this conflict to test its modern weapons and increase their sales in the global market.
Washington: A new report has come from the US Congress giving information about the India-Pakistan conflict that took place in May. The report clearly states that Pakistan’s claim of shooting down six Indian fighter jets is false. According to the report, China took full advantage of these four days of confrontation. The report of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission suggests that China used this conflict as an opportunity to test its modern weapons and intelligence systems and used these results to make its place in the arms market of Western countries.
Testing ground for Chinese weapons
In the India-Pakistan conflict that lasted from May 7 to 10, Pakistan used China’s JF-17 and J-10C fighter aircraft, air-to-air missiles, air defense systems (HQ-9, HQ-16), drones and China’s BeiDou navigation satellite system. The special thing is that this was the first time that these Chinese weapons were used in a real battle. China last fought a war against Vietnam in the late 1970s. At that time they used mostly Soviet weapons.
According to SIPRI 2025 report, China’s share in worldwide arms exports is only 5.9%. The biggest challenge for China was that its weapons were not tested on the battlefield. Beijing tried to overcome this deficiency through India-Pakistan conflict.
How many planes fell?
There is controversy over how many aircraft were shot down in the 7 May airstrike. This was the biggest air battle since 1971. Pakistan claimed to have shot down five Indian aircraft, including three Rafales (later this number was reduced to six). US President Donald Trump claimed eight aircraft were shot down, while the US Congress report said three Indian fighter aircraft were downed. It has also been said in the report that it is not necessary that all these be Rafale aircraft.
French Air Force chief General Jerome Belanger had clarified in July that three Indian aircraft were lost – a Rafale, a Russian Sukhoi and a Mirage 2000. However, Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier said that only one Indian Rafale aircraft fell and that too not due to enemy attack, but due to a technical fault. The report also said that China used Pakistan to propagate that Chinese weapons had managed to shoot down India’s French Rafale aircraft, so that it could increase its arms sales. The report also states that Pakistan suffered the loss of at least five aircraft.
fake propaganda
The US report said that the Chinese Embassy used fake AI-generated pictures and video game scenes to publicize the downing of Indian Rafale planes. Its purpose was to stop Indonesia from buying Rafale aircraft. However, this attempt failed and Indonesia stuck to its decision to buy 42 Rafale aircraft. At the same time, the deal to purchase 40 JF-17 aircraft by Azerbaijan and 42 J-10C aircraft by Indonesia is an indication that the image of Chinese weapons has improved.