How China benefited from the hostilities of India-Pakistan

The four-day conflict between arch-rival India and Pakistan ended this month with a cease-fire and both claims the victory but it now seems that the Chinese defense industry might also be an unlikely winner.

The Last flare-up Started on May 7, when India launched attacks on what the ‘terrorist infrastructure’ in Pakistan called in response to the brutal Murder on 26 Usually people tourists by militants in Pahalgam on April 22.

Many of them were killed in the picturesque valley in Kashmir rated by the Indian for their wives and family members. Delhi accused Islamabad of supporting militant groups involved in the massacre, an indictment that Pakistan denied.

After the response from India – who called the Operation Sindoor – on the militant attack, Tit -For -Tat -tat military maneuvers from both sides, in which drones, rockets and jet hunters were involved.

Reportedly, India used his French and Russian jets, while Pakistan uses his J-10 and J-17 aircraft, which co-produces Islamabad with Beijing. Both parties say that their jets did not cross the border and they shot together.

Islamabad claims that its fighter aircraft shot at least six Indian planes, including the newly acquired French Rafale fighter jets. Delhi did not respond to these claims.

“Losses are part of fighting,” said Air Marshal Ak Bharti of the Indian Air Force (IAF) last week when a reporter asked him about these claims. Air Marshal Bharti refused to comment on the specific claim of Pakistan that decided Indian jets.

“We have achieved the objectives that we have selected, and all our pilots are home again,” he added.

India said it had killed at least “100 terrorists” while it focused at the headquarters of the forbidden Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed Militant Outfits located in Pakistan.

There is another definitive report of what really happened in the air fight. Some media sales points reported The plane crashes around the same time in the state of Punjab and Kashmir rated by the Indian, but the Indian government did not respond to the reports.

A report from Reuters, stating American officials, said that Pakistan might have used the J-10 aircraft made by Chinese to launch air-air missiles against Indian fighter jets. Pakistan who claims the victory after she trusts Chinese weapon systems in an active combat situation is seen by some experts as a boost for the Defense industry of Beijing, but some also disagree with the claim.

Some experts have called this a “Deepseek moment” for the Chinese arms industry, referring to January this year when the Chinese AI start-up shook us giants With its cost -effective technology.

“The air fight was a large advertisement for the Chinese arms industry. So far, China had no opportunity to test his platforms in a combat situation,” said Zhou Bo, a retired senior colonel in the Chinese people Liberation Army, to the BBC.

The analyst, based in Beijing, said that the outcome of the Air Duel showed: “China has some systems that are almost none”. Shares in the Chinese Avic Chengdu Aircraft Company, which produces fighter jets such as the J-10, rose last week by a maximum of 40% after the reported performance of the fighter jet in the conflict between India-Pakistan.

However, other experts think it is too early to explain the superiority of Chinese weapon systems.

Professor Walter Ladwig of the King’s College in London said it still had to be determined whether the Chinese jets had actually outdated the Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft, in particular the Rafale.

“In a standard military doctrine you would suppress the air defense of the enemy and get air superiority before you hit the ground goals. Instead, it seems that the mission of the IAF clearly does not provoke Pakistani military retribution,” he said.

Mr. Ladwig thought that the Indian pilots were given instructions to fly, despite the fact that the entire Pakistani air defense was alert and their jets were already in the air. The IAF has not given any details about the mission or about its strategy for air operations.

Beijing has also not commented on reports about the J-10 that Indian hunters down, including the Rafale. But unconfirmed reports from the J-10 that bring down a Western weapon system have been activated and triumphalism on Chinese social media.

Carlotta Rinaudo, a China researcher at the international team for the study of security in Verona, said that Chinese social media are flooded with nationalist messages, although it is difficult to reach a conclusion with the available information.

“At the moment the perception is much more than reality. When we see it that way, the most important winner is really China,” she said.

Pakistan is a strategic and economic ally for China. It invests more than $ 50 billion (£ 37 billion) to build infrastructure in Pakistan as part of the economic course of China-Pakistan.

A weak Pakistan is therefore not in the interest of China.

China made a critical difference in the latest conflict between India-Pakistan, says Impiaz Gul, a Pakistani security analyst. “It took the Indian planners due to pure surprise. They probably did not imagine the depth of cooperation in modern warfare between Pakistan and China,” he said.

Experts say that the performance of the Chinese jets in a real combat situation were sharply analyzed in the Western capitals, because this will have a step -by -step impact on the global arms trade. The US is the world’s largest arms exporter, while China is the fourth.

China mainly sells weapons to developing countries such as Myanmar and Pakistan. Previously, the Chinese weapon systems were criticized for their poor quality and technical problems.

Reports said the Burmese military grounded Several of his JF-17 fighter jet-man-made manner made by China and Pakistan in 2022-through technical disruptions.

The Nigerian Army reported various technical problems F-7 fighter jets made with the Chinese.

Another point to be noted is that this was not the first time that India lost a plane to Pakistan.

In 2019, during a short air fight Between the two parties after similar Indian air strikes on suspected terrorist goals in Pakistan, a Russian MIG-21 jet was shot on the Pakistani territory and the pilot was captured. He was released a few days later.

India, however, said that the pilot had shot after successfully shot Pakistani fighter jets, including an F-16 made by the US. Pakistan has denied the claim.

Despite the reports about downing Indian Jets last week, experts such as Mr Ladwig claim that India was able to touch an “impressive width of goals” in Pakistan early in the morning of 10 May and this fact has largely gone unnoticed by the international media.

The Indian army said in a coordinated attack, launched missiles on 11 Pakistani air bases throughout the country, including the strategic air base of Nur Khan outside Rawalpindi, not far from the Pakistani military headquarters. It is a sensitive target that surprises Islamabad.

One of the farthest goals was in Bholari, 140 km (86 miles) from the southern city of Karachi.

Mr. Ladwig says that this time the IAF operated with standard procedures – first attack Pakistani anti -aircraft weather and radar systems and then concentrate on ground goals.

The Indian jets used a range of missiles that hang around ammunition and drones, despite the Pakistani that operates the Chinese-intended HQ 9 air weather system.

“It seems that the attacks were relatively accurate and targeted. The craters were in the middle of the start and runways, exactly the ideal place. If it was a longer conflict, how long would the Pakistan Air Force take to get these facilities back to work, I can’t say,” Mr Ladwig said.

Nevertheless, he said, by refusing to get into the details of the mission letter, the military “India’s military” lost control of the narrative thread “.

In response to the Indian strikes, Pakistan said that the rocket and air strikes launched on various Indian forward air bases, but Delhi said that the attacks did not cause any damage to equipment and staff.

Realizing that the situation got out of hand, the US and its allies intervened and both countries were busy stopping the fighting.

But for India, experts say, the entire episode is a wake-up call.

Beijing may not comment on the details of the recent conflict in India-Pakistan, but it wants to show that his weapon systems quickly catch up with the West.

Delhi is aware that the jets that China has supplied to Pakistan are some of the earlier models. Beijing has already introduced the more advanced J-20 Stealth fighter jets that can avoid radars.

India and China have a long -term border conflict along the Himalayas and fought a short border war in 1962 that resulted in a defeat for India. A short border conflicts took place in Ladakh in June 2020.

Experts say that India is aware that investments in the defense production industry must speed up and accelerate international purchases.

For now, the Chinese defense industry seems to enjoy the spotlights after the claims of success of one of his planes in the conflict between India-Pakistan.

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