Pak-India war: Chinese arms superior to expensive Western tech

PARIS: The recent Pakistan-India war has shattered many myths and proved the superiority of Chinese weapons, forcing the West to analyse the latest developments.

In a report, France 24 says it is big victory for China in terms of perception. It was referring to the fact that Pakistan Air force managed to down Indian aircrafts – including French-made Rafale – while using Chinese J-10C fighter jets, which carried PL-15 air-to-air missiles.

CHANGE IN PERCEPTION

“We always had the impression that Chinese weapons were the same as Chinese goods in a way. We assumed that Chinese weapons are inferior. This is not the case anymore,” it quoted Carlotta Rinaudo.

She is a China expert at the International Team for the Study of Security Verona.

“We always had the impression that Chinese weapons were the same as Chinese goods in a way. We assumed that Chinese weapons are inferior. This is not the case anymore,” said Rinaudo.

“We saw China initially just selling tanks and smaller weapons, especially to Pakistan. Now we see very modern and sophisticated weapons being sold that are actually being very effective.”

“So, the lesson that we should all take out of this is that perhaps Chinese weapons are not inferior to Western weapons. We should change that paradigm that we’ve been holding for very long.”

MEN DO MATTER

At the same time, she went on praise the Pakistani military for their professionalism, saying there are several factors contributing to battleground effectiveness.

“It’s very easy to generalise, to say this Chinese weapons system is superior. But at the same time, it’s also the training of the pilots, the coordination among different weapons systems that are important,” she said.

That is why France 24 says that another surprise was Pakistan’s robust response to the Indian escalation – the attack on Nur Khan Airbase in Rawalpindi during the early hours on May 10.

Rinaudo said, “For a country that hasn’t fought, theoretically, any war since the war with Vietnam in 1979, for a country that hasn’t really engaged in war and its own weapons don’t really have that sort of global recognition as, let’s say, French weapons or American weapons, this is a big, big victory in terms of perception.”

On the other hand, Yun Sun, director of the China Programme at the Washington DC-based Stimson Center, says the takeaways of the May 7-10 military engagement are twofold.

“The first one is that the Indian weapons system is not as effective as a lot of people thought they would be.”

She added, “The second takeaway is that the Indian strategic intent could be more ambitious than a lot of people had expected.”

CHEAP AND GOOD

France 24 noted that India was the world’s largest arms importer, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). However, it slipped to second place after Ukraine following the Russian full-scale invasion. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it said, signed billion-dollar arms deals with France and the US in a bid to upgrade the country’s ageing mostly Russian-supplied arsenal.

However, Pakistan was moving away from its Cold War reliance on US weapons as Washington ended its proxy war against the Soviet Union in neighbouring Afghanistan and finally pulled out of the war-torn country in 2021.

“Islamabad turned to its old regional ally, China, which also has territorial disputes with India, for its arms procurements. Beijing has long supported Islamabad with its cooperation on nuclear expertise while its weapons supplies were restricted to tanks, artillery and small arms.”

The French TV channel mentioned that China began upgrading its arms manufacturing capabilities and increasing its weapons exports primarily to Global South countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.