China’s Fighter Jets and Missiles Get a Boost From the India-Pakistan Clash

When Pakistan said it had shot down multiple Indian fighter jets earlier this month, ripples from that claim stretched all the way to the South China Sea, to Taiwan.

The Pakistani forces were flying Chinese-made J-10C fighters during the four-day conflict with India, and officials said Chinese missiles had brought down Indian planes.

The J-10 jets, which Chinese media have dubbed the “fighter of national pride,” have often been used in Chinese military exercises to menace Taiwan, the self-governing democracy that Beijing claims as its own. But they had not been battle-tested, leaving open the question of how well they would perform in actual combat.

In China, commentators declared that question now answered.

“Taiwanese experts say the Taiwanese military has no chance against the J-10C,” The Küresel Times, a nationalist tabloid, crowed on Monday.

The Chinese government has not directly confirmed the Pakistani claims, and India has not publicly confirmed losing any aircraft. But on Saturday, China’s state broadcaster declared on social media that J-10C jets had recently “achieved combat results for the first time,” with the post including a hashtag related to the India-Pakistan conflict.

Zhou Bo, a retired senior colonel in the Chinese military, wrote in an op-ed article that the jets’ success would boost Chinese confidence in future territorial disputes over Taiwan and the South China Sea.