China admits backing Pakistan during conflict with India
A year after the India-Pakistan war, China has publicly confirmed for the first time that its personnel provided on-site technical support to Pakistan’s Air Force during last year’s four-day military conflict with India.
The confirmation came in an interview aired by Chinese State broadcaster CCTV featuring engineers from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), who were deployed in Pakistan during the war.
Describing the conditions at the operational base, Zhang said the team regularly heard fighter jets taking off alongside continuous air-raid sirens, while temperatures approached nearly 50 degrees Celsius. The support teams were focused on ensuring that aircrafts “performed at full combat potential” during the war.
He also described the experience as a demonstration of the close working relationship developed between Chinese technicians and Pakistani forces during the deployment. Another engineer, Xu Da, also confirmed his participation in the support mission, comparing the fighter aircraft to a “child” that engineers had developed and prepared before seeing it tested under combat conditions. Xu said the performance of the J-10CE during the conflict did not come as a surprise to the support teams.
The remarks mark the first official acknowledgment by Chinese personnel that they were directly involved in technical and operational support activities during the India-Pakistan confrontation over Kashmir last year.
Pakistan remains the only known foreign operator of the Chinese-made J-10CE fighter aircraft, an export version of the J-10C multirole combat jet. The aircraft is equipped with advanced active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar systems and can carry long-range Chinese air-to-air missiles, including the PL-15 missile system.
Islamabad had ordered 36 J-10CE fighter jets and approximately 250 PL-15 missiles from China in 2020 as part of a broader military modernisation programme.
Apart from the J-10CE fleet, the Pakistan Air Force also operates the JF-17 fighter jet, jointly developed by China and Pakistan, as a core component of its combat aviation capability.
