Washington, DC [US], November 19 (ANI): A new US assessment released on Wednesday claims that China initiated a disinformation campaign following the India–Pakistan conflict in May to hinder the sale of French Rafale aircraft to India and promote its own J-35 fighters. The campaign allegedly used fake social media accounts to circulate AI-generated images depicting fabricated debris from Rafale jets supposedly destroyed by Chinese weaponry.
The report, published by the US–China Economic and Security Review Commission, stated, “Following the May 2025 India–Pakistan border crisis, China initiated a disinformation campaign to hinder sales of French Rafale aircraft in favour of its own J-35s, using fake social media accounts to propagate AI images of supposed debris from the planes that China’s weaponry destroyed.”
The assessment added that Chinese Embassy officials successfully persuaded Indonesia to halt a Rafale purchase that was already under consideration, helping China gain further leverage in regional military procurement.
The report also highlighted continued growth in China–Pakistan defence cooperation through late 2024 and early 2025. “In November and December 2024, China and Pakistan held the three-week Warrior-VIII counterterrorism drills, and in February 2025, China’s Navy participated in Pakistan’s multinational AMAN drills,” the report noted. It further stated that in June 2025, China reportedly offered Pakistan 40 J-35 fifth-generation fighter jets, KJ-500 aircraft and ballistic missile defence systems.
The report also pointed out that Pakistan announced a 20 per cent increase in its 2025–2026 defence budget in June, raising planned expenditures to USD 9 billion despite an overall reduction in its national budget.
The assessment coincided with developments in Washington, where earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump reiterated his claim that he stopped eight wars during his presidency, including one between India and Pakistan. The remarks came during an Oval Office meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is visiting Washington for the first time since the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“We’ve done a lot of good with this office. I’ve stopped eight wars. I’ve actually stopped eight wars. I have another one to go with Putin. I’m a little surprised at Putin. It’s taken longer than I thought. But we stopped India and Pakistan. I could go through the list,” Trump told reporters. “Many of these leaders have come in and signed their peace deals in the Oval Office.”
President Trump has repeatedly claimed that he used trade tariffs to halt a potential large-scale war between India and Pakistan, asserting that his intervention “settled” the conflict within 24 hours—a claim India has denied.
The President was referring to the border clashes that followed India’s precision strikes in May this year on Pakistani terror camps under Operation Sindoor, carried out in response to the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed 26 lives.
Just last month, Trump again claimed credit for stopping the hostilities between India and Pakistan. “I got it done (ceasefire). There are others. If you look at India and Pakistan, I could say almost any one of the deals that I’ve already done I thought would have been more difficult than Russia and Ukraine, but it didn’t work out that way,” he said while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One.
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