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 Global 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.
“The real effect is actually for the world, including Taiwanese authorities, to see how China’s defense industry has developed by leaps and bounds,” Mr. Zhou said in an interview. “This is for them to think about.”
Further stoking Chinese pride were reports that some of the Indian jets that Pakistan said it had downed were manufactured by France. Some analysts have cast the conflict as a proxy showdown between Western and Chinese arms capabilities, since India has been stepping up its purchases from the West, while Pakistan has drastically increased its military purchases from China.
In addition to jets, Pakistan also used Chinese-made air-defense systems and long-range air-to-air PL-15 missiles in the clash with India, according to security officials and Syed Muhammad Ali, a senior Pakistani defense analyst. Pakistan claimed that the PL-15 missiles hit their targets, though India has said that they did not.
The Chinese military’s lack of real-world combat experience — it has not fought a war in more than 40 years — is a longstanding source of concern for some in Beijing. But China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has made modernizing the military a priority. China has increased its defense spending even as economic growth has slowed, and it is now the fourth-largest arms exporter globally.
Chinese and Taiwanese analysts alike said the recent conflict suggested that Chinese weapons were now on par with Western ones.
“This is the most convincing appearance of the Chinese weapon system on the world stage ” Hu Xijin, former editor in chief of The Global Times, wrote in a blog post.
Mr. Hu added that the United States, having seen proof of China’s prowess, would be less likely to intervene on Taiwan’s behalf.
Some in Taiwan have expressed similar concerns. Li Cheng-chieh, a retired major general in the Taiwanese military, said in an interview that the Pakistani air force’s experience suggested that Taiwanese planes would have “little chance of survival” against Chinese ones.
“Whether our fighter jets would even have the opportunity to take off is a question mark,” he said.
Notably, amid the online nationalism, the Chinese government itself has been more reserved , focusing more on touting Chinese military advances in general. State media did not confirm the use of the Chinese jets in the conflict until more than a week after Pakistan said it had successfully deployed them.
Beijing’s restraint may stem partly from wanting to avoid imperiling a recent diplomatic thaw with India. The two giants have in recent months agreed to resume direct flights and cooperate on trade issues, after their relations fell apart with a deadly clash over a disputed land border in 2020.
This month’s conflict may also have raised questions about other Chinese equipment even as it seemed to show off the strength of its fighter jets. The Indian government said in a statement last week that its air force had “bypassed and jammed Pakistan’s Chinese-supplied air defense systems” in “just 23 minutes, demonstrating India’s technological edge.”
On Monday, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry declined to address Indian claims that China had also provided Pakistan with active air-defense and satellite support during the clash.
“Both India and Pakistan are important neighbors of China,” the spokeswoman, Mao Ning, said.
Ou Si-fu, a research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that Taiwan should not overreact to the recent incident. He noted that it was not yet verified that Chinese-made PL-15 missiles had actually shot down the planes.
Still, he acknowledged that the recent developments should be closely studied.
“It’s like an alarm clock, reminding everyone not to be careless,” he said. “Taiwan has no capital to be careless.”
Siyi Zhao contributed research from Beijing, Amy Chang Chien from Taipei and Salman Masood from Islamabad
Vivian Wang is a China correspondent based in Beijing, where she writes about how the country’s global rise and ambitions are shaping the daily lives of its people.
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