French military and intelligence sources have pointed out that during the May Indo-Pakistani conflict, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) orchestrated an organized information warfare campaign in an attempt to tarnish the global image of France’s main combat aircraft, the Rafale, known as “飆風” in Chinese, and thereby undermine its sales. The CCP’s actions included meetings between defense attachés at Chinese embassies abroad and local security officials, where they questioned the performance of the Rafale and lobbied potential buyers to opt for Chinese-made fighter jets.
According to reports from French intelligence documents cited by the Associated Press (AP), the CCP targeted countries like Indonesia which had already placed orders or were potential buyers, emphasizing India’s loss of several Rafale aircraft during the conflict and suggesting that their combat capabilities fell short of expectations. Officials from multiple countries have relayed Chinese attempts to promote their own products while discrediting French fighter jets back to France.
General Jérôme Bellanger, the Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, stated that, according to the information available to him, India lost three fighter jets during the conflict, including one Rafale, with the others being Russian Su-30 and French Mirage 2000. This marked the first time a Rafale aircraft was shot down in combat. He admitted that doubts about the performance of the aircraft by various countries were a natural response, but reaffirmed France’s confidence in its capabilities.
Military experts have pointed out that evaluating the performance of an aircraft based on a single conflict is challenging. Justin Bronk, an airpower expert at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in the UK, mentioned that the Rafale is one of the most mature fighter jets currently being exported by Western countries and has been deployed in various regions such as the Middle East and Eastern Europe with stable performance.
Analysts believe that the CCP’s attempt to undermine the image of French fighter jets is aimed at promoting their own aircraft in the market. There are widespread doubts about Chinese fighter jets like the J-10C and J-20, which heavily rely on stolen engineering and technology from Western and Russian military aircraft. The US Department of Defense and security agencies have repeatedly emphasized that China’s military technology heavily depends on illegally acquired foreign critical technologies.
General David W. Allvin from the US Air Force bluntly stated that China’s latest J-35A stealth fighter is “almost a blueprint copy” of the American F-35, with striking similarities in design and appearance.
Aside from China’s diplomatic lobbying efforts, French authorities have also identified coordinated cyber offensives on social media by China and Pakistan, involving the spread of misinformation, AI-generated images, and video game footage to exaggerate the damage suffered by the Rafale in combat. French researchers discovered over a thousand new accounts promoting the narrative of “Chinese technological superiority” during the Indo-Pakistani conflict.
French officials believe that the close coordination between Chinese embassy military attachés and online propaganda constitutes a comprehensive assault on the reputation of French fighter aircraft. The French Ministry of Defense stated, “The Rafale is a high-performance aircraft deployed on visible battlefields and exported to multiple countries, representing France’s strategic autonomy and industrial power. This disinformation campaign is not just targeting a single aircraft but the overall national image.”
As of now, Dassault Aviation has sold 533 Rafale aircraft, with 323 of them exported to countries including Egypt, India, Qatar, Greece, Croatia, the UAE, Serbia, and Indonesia, the latter of which is still evaluating whether to make additional purchases.
Bronk’s analysis suggests that China’s attacks on the Rafale are aimed at undermining France’s security cooperation with countries in the Indo-Pacific region. He remarked, “By convincing the world that Pakistani weapons outperformed the Rafale, they can naturally undermine France’s arms sales and regional influence. Beijing has clearly identified this as a vulnerability.”
(Translated and rewritten news article, line breaks added for readability)