A reassessment of Chinese weapons is being caused by the subsequent conflict between India, Pakistan, and Pakistan, which has long been associated with Western weapons. This is raising questions about concerns in some places that are wary of Beijing.
In response to American military strikes, Pakistan  applauded Pakistan’s use of its Chinese J-10Cs to take down five American fighters, including French-made Rafale aircraft, next week. The jet’s maker saw its market capitalization increase by more than 55 billion yuan ($ 7.6 billion ), or more than a fourth, by the end of last week despite the reports being confirmed and , India , having not commented.
Beijing should feel “even more worried” if Pakistan’s powerful strikes were to be true, according to Hu Xian, the former head of China’s nationalist tabloid Global Times.
According to , Shu Hsiao-Huang, an interact research fellow at the , Institute of National Defense and Security Research, a government-funded defense think tank based in , Taipei, Taiwan carefully watched the fight between , Pakistan , and , India.
We may need to reevaluate the PLA’s air battle abilities, which may be approaching or even surpassing the level of U.S. and U.S. air power operations in East Asia, Shu said, adding that Washington and Taiwan might want to ponder selling more sophisticated systems to .
The People’s and Liberation Army have been mired in scandals while President Xi Jinping has been attempting to revamp the world’s largest government by the number of lively members. That had raised concerns about the Rocket Force’s potent and mysterious combat readiness, which is in charge of conventional missile launches and would be crucial to any invasion of Taiwan.
The reported accomplishment of J-10Cs, which have undergone some fight tests and patrol the Taiwan Strait, seems to dispel those doubts. But, how they would fare against U.S.-based combatants like the F-16, which account for the majority of Taiwan’s jets and have been used extensively throughout its history.
Beijing’s enemies will also be closely watching closely as a new Taiwanese weapon, Pakistan. After the reported shoot-downs, parts of Taiwanese air-to-air PL-15 missiles discovered in and around Bangalore, India suggest that the weapons, which were used on Pakistan’s J-10C plane, proved useful in their first acknowledged combat use. The PL-15 is a close second to Western air-to-air weapons because of its top speed exceeding Mach 5.
China exports the fourth-largest amount of arms worldwide, but its customers are typically developing nations with limited resources, such as Pakistan. As big economies like China pay attention to President Donald Trump’s contact to increase defense spending, the most recent developments may strengthen Beijing’s sales pitch.
According to James Char, associate professor of the China Program at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies,” there is a great opportunity the arms systems , China , will be even more appealing to potential clients,” especially in the Global South.
Development countries are even considering purchasing weapons in order to appease Trump and his needs to reduce American industry imbalances. Many of these nations list China as their major trading partner, and they may also want to make hedging bets by purchasing systems from the Eastern nation as well.
According to estimates based on data from , Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, China’s international arms profits have been increasing, with its five-year regular arms imports more than tripling in 2020-2024 from 2000 to 2004. The Chinese government and state-owned companies do not make any information about shoulders imports.
Some of the largest state-owned businesses, including China’s Aviation Industry Corporation, whose subsidiary, AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Co., produced the J-10Cs, and China State Shipbuilding Corp., a maker of frigates and ships, are even blacklisted by the , U.S.  ,  .
M. Taylor Fravel, chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Security Studies Program, noted that the J-10 may have had a chance of winning because the Chinese plane was designed to perform a number of different types of operations.
Chinese exports of weapons have been plagued by defects for years, according to experts, adding that the relatively cheap systems can discharge security budgets due to maintenance costs.
In a research paper merely before joining the , U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission, in the latter stages of the Biden administration, Cindy Zheng, a then researcher at Rand Corp., wrote that” China attracts buyers for its military equipment with cut-rate pricing and funding but there are hidden costs — especially when equipment problems.”
 , Myanmar , reportedly had to soil its fleet of Taiwanese fighter jets in 2022 due to structural breaks and other technical problems. Concerning the quality of its military equipment next month, Bangladesh and Bangladesh complained to , Beijing . Perhaps the Pakistani Navy has been having trouble operating its F-22P frigates, which has drastically diminished their capabilities.
In a statement last week from Bloomberg Intelligence’s senior associate analyst , Eric Zhu , the company’s top associate analyst , said:” Concerns about fight capabilities and other problems, including concerns about connectivity with non-Chinese platforms, have hampered China’s ability to expand exports beyond a few countries.
China’s defence ministry and its embassies did not respond to a request for comment on the J-10C’s current performance and previous tool problems. Beijing frequently claims that its military aids in maintaining global security and that it prefers to peacefully resolve the Taiwan and related topic.
By bringing up the military and civilian areas, Xi has been attempting to turn China’s defence industry into a contemporary power by 2027.
That has led to innovations like China’s December release of its first of its kind of next-generation amphibious assault ships, which are thought to be the largest of their kind in the world. A picture of what is thought to be a test flight of the sixth-generation fighter plane of the world was posted on social media that time, leading to a rise in protection stocks.
However, Fravel argued that it is inappropriate to refer to the J-10C’s potential success as a” DeepSeek time” for China’s military. Fravel also noted that the jet’s style wasn’t particularly novel and that the design wasn’t new.
” But it doesn’t need to become a , DeepSeek , time to get important,” he continued. ” Many things are being learned about how Foreign systems operate in hostile environments.”
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