Op Sindoor battered Pakistan, rattled China: US body says Beijing launched fake news against Rafale

A US Congressional commission has flagged China’s disinformation campaign about Rafale fighter planes during Operation Sindoor.

In its Annual Report for 2025, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said that China used fake social media accounts for a disinformation campaign to hinder the sale of French Rafale fighters and promote the sale of its own J-35 fighters.

The report said China fuelled its disinformation campaign with artificial intelligence (AI).

“Following the May 2025 India-Pakistan border crisis, China initiated a disinformation campaign to hinder sales of French Rafale aircraft in favor of its own J-35s, using fake social media accounts to propagate AI images of supposed ‘debris’ from the planes that China’s weaponry destroyed,” the report said.

In the early hours of May 7, India launched Operation Sindoor and struck terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK). As Pakistan responded with attacks on Indian cities and military sites, India retaliated and the two sides fought for next days.

The fighting —that ended in a ceasefire on May 10— caused severe damage to several Pakistani airbases and saw its airstrips, air defence systems, radar sites, and other infrastructure getting destroyed.

The India-Pakistan conflict also became one between India and China as Pakistan has largely been armed by China in recent years. Pakistan used Chinese JF-17 and J-10 fighters against India along with Chinese missiles PL-15. China resorted to a disinformation campaign to prove that its equipment —such as the J-35 that Pakistan does not yet have— was better than that of India’s equipment.

Previously, US-based military expert Jon Spencer said that India won the technology war in Operation Sindoor and Pakistan lost as China’s proxy.

“Operation Sindoor pitted India’s indigenously developed weapons systems against Chinese-supplied platforms fielded by Pakistan. And India didn’t just win on the battlefield — it won the technology referendum. What unfolded was not just retaliation, but the strategic debut of a sovereign arsenal built under the twin doctrines of Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat,” said Spencer in an article on X.