China’s jets and missiles make Pakistan a winner over India

In what is now being dubbed the fiercest air battle of the 21st century, Pakistan and India clashed in the skies between May 6 and 7 in a dramatic confrontation involving more than 125 fighter jets. Though India held the numerical edge, the outcome shocked many: Pakistan claimed to have shot down five Indian jets, including three of India’s highly prized Rafale fighters — French-made 4.5th-generation aircraft, deployed by India as a symbol of its modern air power. 

But it wasn’t just the downing of Rafales that made headlines. What truly stunned military experts across the globe was how Pakistan achieved it: with Chinese-made J-10CE fighter jets, advanced air-to-air missiles, radars, and electronic warfare systems. For the first time, China’s modern aerial technology had been tested in a real-world, high-intensity combat scenario — and it performed with stunning success. 

“This battle marks a return to old-school state-on-state air warfare,” said Walter Ladwig of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), speaking to Newsweek. “It’s a rare and revealing moment when advanced air forces go head-to-head using their most sophisticated gear.” 

Read more: India’s Rafale supplier Dassault crashed 10.93%, Pakistan’s J-10C supplier Chengdu soared 61.65%

The implications extend far beyond South Asia. Analysts from China, the US, and Europe are now eagerly analyzing every scrap of open-source data, videos, and radar logs to learn what worked and what didn’t. Douglas Barrie, a senior aerospace fellow at the IISS, emphasized the urgency among global militaries to understand Pakistan’s combat tactics and the performance of China’s equipment. 

Meanwhile, the fallout has been felt economically too. Chengdu Aerospace Corporation, the Chinese firm behind the J-10CE, saw its stock surge by over 40% in just two days after news broke of the jet’s battlefield success. 

“There’s no better advertisement than real combat,” said Yun Sun of the Stimson Center, noting that Beijing had been given a major credibility boost. 

For China, this wasn’t just a battlefield win—it was a global showcase, hinting at its potential role in future great power conflicts, from Taiwan to beyond.