Chinese media sphere wages smear campaign against France's Rafale jet

France 24

04-07-2025

Rafale bashing. From May 6–10, India launched Operation Sindoor, a series of bombings against Pakistan in retaliation for a deadly attack on tourists in Indian Kashmir. During the attack, three Rafales, the Indian air force's most modern aircraft, were shot down by Pakistani fighters, according to Pakistan.
Experts are more cautious and estimate, without certainty, that at least one Rafale fighter jet, a French aircraft built by Dassault Aviation, may have been destroyed.
As soon as it was revealed, the incident – the exact scale of which has yet to be confirmed – triggered a Chinese propaganda campaign against the Rafale.
In fact, the Pakistani combat aircraft used against India are made from Chinese JF-17 and J-10C aircraft. For a whole media ecosystem – composed of media affiliated or not to the Chinese Communist Party, influencers and ordinary internet users – denigrating the French aircraft was an opportunity to promote Chinese aircraft at its expense.
On May 7, the day after the first night of clashes between India and Pakistan, a screenshot of a supposed publication by Qnews, an English-language media outlet based in Egypt, was shared on social networks and the Chinese news portal sina.cn.
According to the publication, the French government had requested that India "immediately" ground its Rafale fighter jets. 'This follows the downing of three Rafale jets by the Pakistani air Force last night, prompting France to urge India to cease using Rafale jets in operations against Pakistan,' reads the shared post.
The alleged Qnews post was also shared outside Chinese social networks. ShanghaiPanda, an influencer with positions close to the Chinese Communist Party, shared the same screenshot on X with a message in English on May 7.
However, this post is false, and the identity of the Qnews media outlet had been stolen. When contacted, Qnews stated that the shared post was 'entirely fabricated' and confirmed that it had not been published on 'any of the media's official platforms'. A search of the Qnews Facebook page and Instagram account produced no results. 'The claim being circulated about the French government and Rafale aircraft is false, and Qnews has no connection with this content,' the media outlet also said.
Usurping the identity of a foreign media outlet to disseminate false information is a modus operandi reminiscent of the disinformation strategy employed by Russia in Operation Doppelganger, which involved imitating newspaper headlines and traditional media publications.
Other publications have amplified a rumour that Indonesia is preparing to reconsider an order for 42 Rafales, a deal signed with France in 2022, with deliveries slated to begin in 2026.
This rumour initially stemmed from an article published by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), a Hong Kong newspaper, on May 14. The article was claiming that the sale of the Rafales was to be the subject of an in-depth review by Indonesia, following the alleged destruction of the French aircraft during clashes between India and Pakistan.
This assertion was picked up, albeit in an exaggerated form, by several Chinese news websites such as military.china.com. Devoted to military issues, the site claims that Indonesia is considering abandoning its Rafale purchase altogether.
The rumour of a suspension of the Indonesian contract is also relayed by the Pravda site, which has been pinpointed as one of the cogs in a pro-Russian propaganda network, Portal Kombat, by Viginum, the French government's service against foreign digital interference.
The Pravda site cites Galaxia Militar, a Spanish news site covering military news, as its source. Galaxia Militar indicates that the author of its article is a Nepalese news site, Asia Live, which also announced on its website that Indonesia had suspended its Rafale purchase.
Is this rumour justified? To support their announcements, the SCMP and Asia Live recount comments supposedly attributed to Dave Laksono, a member of the First Commission of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia, a government body that deals with defence issues.
According to these media outlets, the MP said that Pakistan's claims that the Rafales had been shot down were 'legitimate and constructive' grounds for 'evaluation'.
The FRANCE 24 Observers team contacted Dave Laksono. He said that the statements attributed to him by AsiaLive and the SCMP were 'selectively quoted' and 'do not accurately reflect' the full context of his remarks:
At no point did I 'concede' that the Rafale's performance warranted a formal reassessment of the procurement. What I stated was that unverified claims arising from conflict zones – such as those recently reported in the India-Pakistan context – should not be used as the sole basis for evaluating the effectiveness of any weapons system. I further emphasised that even the most advanced aircraft, including those operated by NATO allies, have experienced losses in complex combat environments. This is a reality of modern warfare, not a reflection of systemic failure.
The MP added:
The Government of Indonesia has not paused or reassessed the Rafale deal. The agreement remains in force, and preparations for delivering the first batch of aircraft in 2026 are proceeding as scheduled.
Far from wishing to suspend its Rafale purchases, as Asia Live and the Chinese media maintain, Indonesia signed a letter of intent to purchase additional aircraft at the end of May.
Finally, the Asia Live article is all the more suspicious for its confusion: it claims that the Indonesian defence minister – a certain Prabowo Subianto, according to the media – ordered a classified reassessment of the Rafale purchase. However, Prabowo Subianto is not the defence minister, he is the president of Indonesia.
On May 7, a number of influencer accounts with pro-Beijing views posted a spectacular video of a plane being shot down on X. According to messages written in Arabic, Chinese and English, it showed an Indian Rafale shot down during clashes with Pakistan.
However, this video is not real.
First, the plane shot down is not a Rafale but a MiG-29 fighter jet, as you can see from its silhouette.
Second, the footage is actually taken from the video game ArmA 3. You can find it on YouTube by searching for 'MiG-29' and "ArmA 3". The video was published on November 10, 2024, and actually shows an Iranian army MiG-29.
Finally, it should be noted that this video was also posted on Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, by Beijing Daily, the official newspaper of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. This suggests that more official media may also have shared erroneous content about the Rafale.
A sketch denigrating the Rafale liked more than 850,000 times in two hours
In addition to disinformation content, the 'Rafale Bashing' is going viral on social networks due to Douyin broadcasting a sketch by Chinese comedian 'Brother Hao' on May 8.
The sketch, entitled 'The plane I just bought was shot down', is a parody of a Bollywood song and mocks the supposed destruction of the Indian Rafales. The comedian appears in 'Black Face' make-up, which darkens his skin to make him look like an Indian. According to the Chinese news website Sohu, the song was liked more than 850,000 times in two hours and viewed over 80 million times within 48 hours.
Brother Hao, whose real name is Zhou Guanhao, is an influencer believed to have links to China's privately-owned Joy Media Group, according to open-source analyst Jacque Rainey. This suggests that the nationalist anti-Rafale discourse in China has also been carried – within limits no doubt set by the State – by private sector media players.
This is not Brother Hao's first sketch with anti-Indian overtones. In 2023, the comedian had already been criticised by the Indian embassy in China for 'racial discrimination', reports the Chinese website Sohu,in connection with another musical track.
'The plane I just bought was shot down' began circulating outside China when it was relayed by pro-regime influencers publishing in English. These included Zhao Da Shuai, an X account claiming to be part of the People's Armed Police Propaganda Bureau, and Carl Zha, a Bali-based influencer with positions close to the Chinese Communist Party.
The title was also shared by Pakistani accounts such as Defence Pakistan, which Chinese internet users believe, without providing proof, to be linked to the Pakistani Ministry of Defence.
Finally, the sketch was also quite widely distributed on YouTube. Our team found that it was relayed by 155 channels on the platform. While the majority of these channels appear to be held by accounts no doubt seeking to capitalise on the virality of the sketch, at least some of them (17) show signs of inauthentic behaviour. These profiles appear to have been created specifically for the broadcast of the sketch, or to have broadcast it even though they had been inactive for months. Other accounts display a pro-Chinese regime stance, such as a channel advocating the unification of Taiwan with mainland China.