China launched a coordinated disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting Rafale fighter jets after their use by India during Operation Sindoor against Pakistan in May, claimed French military and intelligence officials.
They added that using its embassies, China sought to damage the reputation of the French-made aircraft and disrupt its global sales.
French officials disclosed that China’s foreign missions actively sought to discourage countries that had already ordered Rafale jets from going through with their acquisitions, while simultaneously urging other prospective buyers to consider Chinese-made alternatives. A French military official said the effort was a deliberate attempt to tarnish the Rafale’s global reputation.
The French Defence Ministry went on record saying that the Rafale was the subject of “a vast campaign of disinformation” designed to highlight the “superiority of alternative equipment, notably of Chinese design.” The ministry added, “The Rafale was not randomly targeted. It is a highly capable fighter jet, exported abroad and deployed in a high-visibility theatre.” It further asserted that the campaign was not just against the aircraft but also targeted France’s “strategic autonomy, industrial reliability, and solid partnerships.”
Eric Trappier, CEO of Dassault Aviation—the French manufacturer of the Rafale—dismissed Pakistan’s claim that three Rafales were downed during the four-day conflict with India as “inaccurate.” This claim had surfaced months earlier, as Pakistan, a close ally of China, asserted that its forces had shot down the jets during the hostilities.
India’s Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, recently acknowledged for the first time that an unspecified number of Indian fighter jets were lost during the clash with Pakistan. However, he rejected Pakistan’s claims regarding the Rafales, calling them “absolutely incorrect.”
According to French intelligence, Chinese defence attaches based in embassies lobbied defence and security officials in countries that had purchased or were considering purchasing Rafales. These officials promoted narratives that the Rafales used by the Indian Air Force had performed poorly in combat. French authorities became aware of these efforts through governments that had been approached by Chinese diplomats.
According to reports, this disinformation campaign involved viral social media content, AI-generated media, doctored images purportedly showing Rafale wreckage, and even video-game simulations depicting fake combat scenarios. French researchers monitoring online disinformation noted that more than 1,000 newly created social media accounts began spreading content emphasizing Chinese technological superiority as the India-Pakistan conflict unfolded.
The French Defence Ministry stressed that the disinformation campaign targeted the Rafale specifically because it represents a “strategic French offering.” It said, “By attacking the aircraft, certain actors sought to undermine the credibility of France and its defence industrial and technological base.”
Dassault Aviation has sold 533 Rafales, with 323 designated for export to countries including Egypt, India, Qatar, Greece, Croatia, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia, and Indonesia. Indonesia alone has ordered 42 jets and is considering additional purchases.
Justin Bronk, an airpower expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London, commented that China might be using the alleged downing of a Rafale by Pakistan as a tool to disrupt France’s growing defence ties in Asia. “From a point of view of limiting Western countries’ influence in the Indo-Pacific, it would make sense for China to be using the performance of Pakistani weapons systems—or at least purported performance—in downing at least one Rafale as a tool to undermine its attractiveness as an export,” he said. “They certainly saw an opportunity to damage French sales prospects in the region.”
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