French fighter jets aren't up to it, claim Chinese agents
China used its diplomatic network to cast doubt over France's Rafale jets after four days of fighting between the two South Asian neighbours, the sources said.
Pakistan claimed its Chinese fighter jets had shot down five of India's aircraft that were made in France, including three Rafales.
Pakistan used China's J10-C Vigorous Dragon and JF-17 Thunder planes, armed with air-to-air missiles. It is thought to be the first time the J10-C has been used in active combat.
Findings from a French intelligence service, which has been seen by The Associated Press (AP), said defence attaches in China's foreign embassies began a drive to undermine Rafale sales. They have also been persuading countries, notably Indonesia, to backtrack on orders of the French jets and buy theirs.
India acknowledged it had lost aircraft in the fighting but declined to say which or how many.
Gen Jérôme Bellanger, of the French air force, said he had seen evidence pointing to just three Indian losses – a Rafale, a Russian-made Sukhoi and a Mirage 2000, which is an earlier-generation French-made jet. It was the first known combat loss of a Rafale, which France has sold to eight countries.
'Of course, all those, the nations that bought Rafales, asked themselves questions,' Gen Bellanger told AP.
France's defence ministry said the Rafale was targeted by 'a vast campaign of disinformation' that 'sought to promote the superiority of alternative equipment, notably of Chinese design'.
'The Rafale was not randomly targeted. It is a highly capable fighter jet, exported abroad and deployed in a high-visibility theatre,' the ministry wrote on its website.
'By attacking the aircraft, certain actors sought to undermine the credibility of France and its defence industrial and technological base.
French officials said the campaign included viral posts on social media, manipulated imagery showing supposed Rafale debris, AI-generated content and video-game depictions to simulate supposed combat.
China's ministry of national defence dismissed claims it had launched a Rafale-bashing drive as 'pure groundless rumours and slander'.
'China has consistently maintained a prudent and responsible approach to military exports, playing a constructive role in regional and global peace and stability,' it said.
Experts said it would make sense for China to attack French technological prowess and reliability as part of its wider campaign to counter Western countries' influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
41 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Xi Jinping may be losing control of China's military
General He Weidong, a vice-chairman of the Communist Party's Central Military Commission and China's number two-ranked uniformed officer, was reportedly last seen in public on March 11. The general was known as a Xi Jinping loyalist in the military. The Financial Times reports that former and current US officials believe that he has been removed from his People's Liberation Army and Party posts. There are even unverifiable rumours that the general died in May – in the PLA's 301 Hospital in Beijing – but in any event General He has evidently been sidelined, no longer able to implement Xi's orders. Many believe that China's leader was the one who sacked the general. 'The fact that Xi Jinping can purge a CMC vice-chair shows how serious he is about stamping out corruption in the military,' Neil Thomas of the Asia Society Policy Institute told the Financial Times. 'Xi wants to turn the PLA into an effective fighting force beyond China's borders but also into a complete servant to his domestic agenda.' The FT apparently agrees with this assessment, labelling General He's treatment 'the most dramatic act of [Xi's] military anti-corruption campaign and first firing of a general in that role in six decades'. Xi has been powerful for a long time, so it's natural that analysts and journalists ascribe every significant action in China to him. It's also true that, at one time, he had almost complete control of the military, which reports not to the Chinese state but to the Communist Party. Xi's continual 'corruption' purges, carried out throughout his rule, and his major reorganisation of the PLA, conducted in the middle of last decade, gave him the opportunity to install loyalists. So, unsurprisingly, the Xi-is-strong narrative has persisted. Australia's ABC argues that General He may have fallen because of Xi's need to control internal politics: 'In He's case, the removal may have been less about personal wrongdoing and more about managing factional rivalry and consolidating political control.' Others have suggested that Xi has become a Stalin-like paranoid who sees enemies everywhere and so churns the ranks of senior officers. But General He is not the only recent uniformed victim, nor the only general to have been toppled who was supposedly loyal to Xi. Also disappeared include General Li Shangfu, a defence minister, General Wei Fenghe, one of Li's predecessors, and General Miao Hua, head of personnel and ideological inspection. 'The continuation of the purges is hard to explain if Xi dominates the political system because his supporters are now being purged,' Charles Burton of the Prague-based Sinopsis think tank told me this month. 'Sometimes the simplest explanations are the most credible. The simplest explanation is that Xi's enemies – not Xi himself – removed Xi's loyalists.' There is evidence indicating that Burton, a former Canadian diplomat in Beijing, is right. According to the Jamestown Foundation, beginning July 9 of last year PLA Daily, the Chinese military's main propaganda organ, ran a series of articles praising 'collective leadership,' a clear criticism of Xi's demand for complete obedience. These articles – apparently written by those aligned with the number one-ranked uniformed officer, Central Military Commission Vice Chairman General Zhang Youxia – are unlikely to have appeared if Xi were in complete control of the military. There is also evidence that Xi has lost influence among civilians. His skipping of the just-completed Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro – the first such gathering he has missed – is a clear signal that he might no longer be in control. Perhaps he is no longer permitted to travel outside China. Some point to the Politburo's establishment of new coordination 'regulations,' announced by Xi himself on June 30, as marking a formal limitation on his power. The Chinese regime has been especially opaque this decade, so it has been even harder to read than in earlier times. Nonetheless, there are obvious signs of instability. Is China's unstable regime more or less dangerous? As an initial matter, strongmen like Xi rarely go quietly. If he is under threat, he may well think that he has to act against the others fast. Among other things, China triggering a war would inhibit other senior CCP leaders from trying to remove him in the midst of fighting, so he may think that provoking a conflict is in his interest. A regime in turmoil is probably not capable of the planning and unity necessary to start large-scale military operations, such as an invasion of the main island of Taiwan. Yet it is more likely to end up in a conflict than a stable one. China has for years been provoking countries on its periphery, from South Korea in the north to Australia in the south. Additionally, Chinese planes and ships have been challenging America in the global commons in risky confrontations. Now, China may be unable to defuse any crisis that it causes, either by accident or on purpose. Because only the most hostile responses are considered acceptable in a militarised and highly turbulent Beijing, regime figures will not be able to deal with others constructively. A weak Xi and a Communist Party in turmoil are dangerous, and probably far more dangerous than a strong leader and a stable ruling group.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Dozens missing after flash floods and landslides in Himachal Pradesh
India's mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh has been left reeling after it was hit by rainstorms, flash floods and landslides, with dozens of people reported missing. Hundreds of homes, bridges, roads and electricity pylons in the north Indian state were washed away after 23 flash floods and 16 landslides caused by unusually heavy rainfall over the weekend. There were also 19 cloudbursts, in which an enormous amount of rain falls in a sudden deluge, according to a report by the Himachal Pradesh state government. Several districts remained on high alert for further landslides, with warnings of more rainfall this week. Himachal Pradesh, a state that spans the mountainous terrain of the Himalayas, has suffered repeatedly in recent years as the climate emergency has led to the monsoon rains becoming erratic and falling in more intense, unmanageable bursts. In 2023, large swathes of essential infrastructure in Himachal Pradesh was destroyed and more than 300 people lost their lives after destructive flooding across north India, caused by heavy rains. Many of the state's biggest towns and cities are built on steep slopes, resulting in hundreds of homes – often built on insecure terrain – collapsing or being engulfed in mud due to landslides and flooding. The state disaster management authority said the death toll from monsoon-related disasters had reached 78 so far this year, which included deaths from flash floods, electrocution and road accidents. Rescue efforts were ongoing on Monday to find dozens of people still missing after the landslides, but officials said efforts had been hampered by the region's treacherous terrain and the destruction of vital roads. Many areas across the state were left isolated, without access to clean water and power. One of the worst-affected urban areas was the town of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. The town's MP, Bollywood star turned politician Kangana Ranaut – known for her often provocative statements – caused outrage after she said she did 'not have any funds for disaster relief or hold any cabinet post'. Experts have repeatedly said the climate crisis is intensifying the risk of flooding in India to dangerous levels, due to increased rainfall, rising sea levels, and more extreme weather events, particularly during the monsoon period between June and September, when about 80% of the country's rain falls. Serious flooding in June had already led to dozens of deaths in the north-eastern Indian states of Assam and Mizoram where the monsoon rains arrive earlier. The early arrival of heavy monsoon rains in Mumbai left large areas of the city under water, bringing the metropolitan area, home to about 24 million people, to a standstill.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Dozens missing after flash floods and landslides in Himachal Pradesh
India's mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh has been left reeling after it was hit by rainstorms, flash floods and landslides, with dozens of people reported missing. Hundreds of homes, bridges, roads and electricity pylons in the north Indian state were washed away after 23 flash floods and 16 landslides caused by unusually heavy rainfall over the weekend. There were also 19 cloudbursts, in which an enormous amount of rain falls in a sudden deluge, according to a report by the Himachal Pradesh state government. Several districts remained on high alert for further landslides, with warnings of more rainfall this week. Himachal Pradesh, a state that spans the mountainous terrain of the Himalayas, has suffered repeatedly in recent years as the climate emergency has led to the monsoon rains becoming erratic and falling in more intense, unmanageable bursts. In 2023, large swathes of essential infrastructure in Himachal Pradesh was destroyed and more than 300 people lost their lives after destructive flooding across north India, caused by heavy rains. Many of the state's biggest towns and cities are built on steep slopes, resulting in hundreds of homes – often built on insecure terrain – collapsing or being engulfed in mud due to landslides and flooding. The state disaster management authority said the death toll from monsoon-related disasters had reached 78 so far this year, which included deaths from flash floods, electrocution and road accidents. Rescue efforts were ongoing on Monday to find dozens of people still missing after the landslides, but officials said efforts had been hampered by the region's treacherous terrain and the destruction of vital roads. Many areas across the state were left isolated, without access to clean water and power. One of the worst-affected urban areas was the town of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. The town's MP, Bollywood star turned politician Kangana Ranaut – known for her often provocative statements – caused outrage after she said she did 'not have any funds for disaster relief or hold any cabinet post'. Experts have repeatedly said the climate crisis is intensifying the risk of flooding in India to dangerous levels, due to increased rainfall, rising sea levels, and more extreme weather events, particularly during the monsoon period between June and September, when about 80% of the country's rain falls. Serious flooding in June had already led to dozens of deaths in the north-eastern Indian states of Assam and Mizoram where the monsoon rains arrive earlier. The early arrival of heavy monsoon rains in Mumbai left large areas of the city under water, bringing the metropolitan area, home to about 24 million people, to a standstill.
