China fans Pakistani fake claims of shooting down 5 Indian Air Force jets using Chinese jets to promote its defense technology, reports surge in defense stocks after Operation Sindoor

On early morning of May 7, India launched a devastating strike on terror targets inside Pakistan controlled territory. Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujhaideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba terror camps located in Bahawalpur, Muridke, and Muzaffarabad were hit by missiles from Indian forces. Following the attacks, a rattled Pakistani establishment and Pakistani media floated all sorts of fake news to try and save their face.

One such fake news that repeatedly surfaced, and continues to make the rounds, is that Pakistan downed several Indian Jets in retaliation. The number of jets downed by Pakistan varied from propagandist to propagandist depending on their individual lucky numbers. Some said 2, some said 3, some said 5, and leading journalist Hamid Mir thought he should lead here as well, and claimed 6 Indian Jets were shot down by Pakistan.

Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Asif also peddled the same fake news in an interview with CNN, and when asked if he has any evidence, he innocently said he had read it on Social Media, I repeat, he is the Defense Minister of the country which allegedly shot down 5 jets, he apparently gets his information from social media trolls.

The propaganda factory of Pakistan also claimed that 1 Rafale, India’s most advanced fighter jet, procured from France, was also shot down by Pakistan. Some more enthusiastic propagandists posted on social media that 3 Rafales have been shot down.

Even though debris of no Indian aircraft have been found, no photo or video evidence has been recorded, no pilots have been found who must have evacuated these jets, Pakistani propaganda accounts are diligently peddling this obvious fake news. While the rational part of the world is still waiting for some sort of evidence from Pakistan to support these claims, their all-weather friend (friend/owner, you decide) China has stepped in to promote the fake news peddled by Pakistan.

China Daily, a daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party, repeated Khawaja Asif’s claims that 5 Indian jets have been shot down by Pakistan. As mentioned earlier, Khawaja Asif got this information from social media trolls. So now, the claims of these trolls are being reported as facts by China’s propaganda arm as they can cite Pakistan Defense Minister as the source.

Another Chinese state media ‘Global Times’ also promoted this fake news that Pakistan has shot down 5 Indian Jets after India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’. For good measure, Global Times added that Pakistan also shot down 4 Indian quadcopters in retaliatory fire. Embarrassingly for Global Times, they were publicly called out by Indian Embassy in China for spreading disinformation and fanning Pakistan propaganda.

While India-China border tensions have been long ongoing, which increased after Galwan confrontation, and China has always supported Pakistan, not just against India but even otherwise, it was rather surprising to see state propaganda arms pushing these Pakistani lies. Then the reason was revealed. Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in Pakistan’s National Assembly that Pakistan was using Made in China J-10C fighter jets against Indian jets.

A Chinese J-10C shooting down a Rafale would be a huge boost to the Made in China fighter jet, so it is hardly surprising that China is invested in keeping this fake news going.

Interestingly, Pakistan’s airspace was also guarded by Made in China products, the HQ-9 and LY-80 (HQ-16) air defense systems, that are often paraded by Islamabad as state-of-the-art solutions against aerial threats. The HQ-9, modeled after Russia’s S-300, is marketed as capable of detecting and neutralizing threats mid-air. Yet, during Operation Sindoor, these systems neither saw the missiles coming nor reacted when they did.

Now, this failure of their air defense systems delivered a serious blow to the reputation of Chinese defense industry so in such a situation, they needed something to defend their industry, and a J-10C shooting down 5 Indian Jets, including a Rafale, was just perfect.

J-10C, like most of the domestically-developed Chinese platforms had not yet been battle-tested till now, so they also needed this fake news of it bringing down a Rafale to show that this fighter jet is good for active combat.

Chinese defense stocks surge after Operation Sindoor

Pakistan is reliant on China for most of its defense requirements. Most of its arms and ammunitions come from China. Over the last 5 years, 81% of its defense hardware imports are reportedly from China. For China as well, Pakistan is a key market as 63% of its defense exports head to Pakistan. With Pakistan buying Billions of Dollars worth of defense equipment from China, it is invested in keeping their lie going that J-10C brought down 5 Indian jets, including Rafale.

In case of direct conflict between India-Pakistan, China is expected to supply more and more arms and ammunition to Pakistan Army to replace the losses suffered during the conflict. Expecting that rise in demand from Pakistan, Chinese defense stocks are surging after Operation Sindoor.

Stocks of AVIC Chengdu Aircraft, which manufactures J-10C have reportedly skyrocketed since Wednesday, when Operation Sindoor was launched by India. AVIC Aerospace, which produces military aircraft and helicopters, also reportedly saw its shares zooming in the Hong Kong market. China State Shipbuilding Corporation, which builds military and civilian vessels, also saw its shares inch up in last 2 days, but not as significantly as AVIC stocks.

That explains it, it is in China’s financial interest that the lie about J-10C shooting down several aircrafts keeps on growing, as it enables them to sell more fighter jets with this enhanced reputation, to not just Pakistan, but to other countries around the world who are in the market for fighter jets. Meanwhile, hopefully, one of these days we will find the debris of these 5 jets that Chinese jets shot down, or maybe the debris just did an MH-370 and disappeared forever.

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