After Pakistan’s Chinese weapons failed against India, China relies on propaganda in foreign media to save face, gets the same lie about its weapons published everywhere

On May 7, 2025, India attacked terrorist camps in Pakistan under ‘Operation Sindoor’. Pakistan’s Chinese Air Defence System was a moot spectator as India targeted terror sites in Pakistan at will. After this, the Pakistani army tried to target the Indian Military sites, however, it failed miserably.

The main reason for the failure of the Pakistani army was its reliance on untested weapons from China. Be it Chinese fighter jets, air defense systems or drones made by it, all failed miserably against India. Now China, frustrated by this, has resorted to propaganda to defend the quality of its weapons.

To hide the failure of its weapons, China is now doing PR through global media portals. Reports praising Chinese weapons have been published in all these portals around the world.

There is an attempt to show the Chinese weapons, which have proved to be junk on the battlefield, as effective. Clickbait headlines are being used for this. This Chinese propaganda is being fueled by foreign media organizations like Bloomberg, FRANCE24, and The Guardian.

The American media organization Bloomberg was among the first to give a platform to this Chinese propaganda. It published a report on May 13, 2025. Its headline was, ‘Chinese weapons gain credibility after India-Pakistan conflict’.

In this report, the topic of Chinese weapons was discussed. The main focus of the report was on the Chinese made fighter aircraft J-10C and PL-15 missile. In the entire report, it was claimed that Pakistan successfully used the Chinese made J-10C aircraft against India.

Bloomberg also claimed that this fighter aircraft shot down 5 fighter jets of India. It cited statements of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar. It did not confirm anywhere on its own whether something like this happened or not. As reported on OpIndia earlier, nobody has ever given any proof of these 5 aircrafts getting shot down.

The truth is that Pakistan has not been able to show any debris of an Indian aircraft. Its Defense Minister had to face public humiliation on TV due to this claim. The Pakistani army also made such fantastical claims in its press conference and did not show any evidence.

Bloomberg ignored this information and declared the Chinese plane the winner. It also praised the Chinese missile PL-15, which fell like a pack of cards after landing in India. This missile was recovered in Hoshiarpur without hitting anything.

The wording of this piece itself makes it clear that this is a propaganda article. Bloomberg also gave proof that it is a propaganda article through its actions. When this news was published on May 13, 2025, the names of Josh Xiao and Yian Li were visible as its authors.

Both of them are probably journalists who promote Chinese propaganda. When people raised questions about the baseless claim, Bloomberg quietly removed one name from the report on May 14, 2025, and added an Indian name Sudhi Ranjan Sen. This move of Bloomberg clearly appeared to be an attempt to save credibility.

Not just Bloomberg, but organisations like FRANCE24, The Eurasian Times, The Guardian and Reuters also contributed to this Chinese propaganda. FRANCE24, despite being a French government media organisation, was seen raising questions on the Rafale jets manufactured in the same country.

FRANCE24 also wrote something similar to what was written in Bloomberg’s article. FRANCE24 also furthered China’s propaganda about J-10. However, in this article, it also listed the shortcomings of China’s HQ-9 and HQ-16 air defense systems. This air defense system could not stop the Indian attack.

Similarly, the British news agency The Guardian also published a report, in which the headline itself described the Chinese-made J-10 and PL-15 missiles as effective. In this too, the opinion of the same experts was taken, with whom Bloomberg or other organizations had talked about Chinese weapons.

In all these articles, claims of the effectiveness of Chinese weapons have been made based on sources from Pakistan and China. The same tone, language, and similar claims in all media institutions cannot be a happy coincidence anyway.

Apart from this, China has been accused of infiltrating Western media institutions in the past as well. In such a situation, their simultaneous statements about Chinese weapons show that this is a Chinese propaganda and not an honest assessment of its military capabilities.

The truth about Chinese weapons and their actual capabilities has already become clear during the Indian attack. Pakistan has purchased military equipment worth about ₹40 thousand crores from China in the last few years. This includes drones and planes like JF-17.

China’s drones also could not enter India and were shot down. The fact is that Indian weapons have shown amazing performance during the recent tension while Chinese weapons have proved to be junk, its effect is likely to be seen in the international arms market in some time.

The damage done to Chinese weapons during this war will affect their sales, while there is a great possibility that many countries will come forward to buy Indian weapons. In such a situation, it cannot be denied that China is doing this to reduce its economic losses.

The original OpIndia Hindi report can be read here.

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