On China's ‘On-Site’ Support to Pakistan in Op Sindoor, MEA Says ‘Responsible’ Countries 'Must Reflect'
New Delhi: India on Tuesday (May 12) said reports in Chinese state media confirmed New Delhi’s long held claims about China’s role during Operation Sindoor, while questioning whether “responsible” countries should help protect terrorist infrastructure.
Responding to reports in Chinese state media that Chinese personnel provided technical support to Pakistan during last year’s conflict with India, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said New Delhi had “seen these reports that corroborate what was known earlier”.
He said Operation Sindoor had been a “precise, targeted and calibrated response” to the Pahalgam terror attack and was aimed at destroying “state sponsored terrorist infrastructure operating out of Pakistan and at its behest”.
“It is for nations who consider themselves responsible to reflect whether supporting attempts to protect terrorist infrastructure affects their reputation and standing,” he added.
The comments came after the South China Morning Post reported that engineers from China’s Aviation Industry Corporation of China had acknowledged providing on-site support to Pakistan during the May 2025 conflict with India. The report cited interviews aired by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on May 7, the anniversary of start of the four-day India-Pakistan clash, in which engineers linked to the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute described working alongside the Pakistan Air Force during the fighting.
One engineer, Zhang Heng said his team worked under extreme conditions at a “support base” during the conflict and sought to ensure Chinese supplied equipment “performed at its full combat potential”. Another Chinese engineer, Xu Da, described the J-10CE fighter aircraft used by Pakistan as having proven itself during combat.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, 2025, after a terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir killed 26 civilians on April 22. India alleged that the attack had cross-border links to Pakistan.
In response, India carried out air and missile strikes on nine terror-linked locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir housing the groups Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Pakistan retaliated the next day, triggering an aerial battle involving over fighter jets, missiles and drones from both sides before a ceasefire took effect on May 10.
India had repeatedly signalled during and after Operation Sindoor that Pakistan’s military response relied heavily on Chinese platforms and support systems.
In late May 2025, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said in media interviews on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore that Pakistan had procured almost 80% of its military equipment from China in recent years. Chauhan acknowledged that India had suffered aircraft losses in the opening phase of Operation Sindoor but said Indian forces had rectified tactical errors and returned to strike Pakistani airbases with what he described as precision strikes that penetrated air defences.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar underlined that many of the weapons used by Pakistan are of Chinese origin and the two countries are very close. "You can draw your own conclusions from that," he said in an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The fuller extent of China's operational support emerged in early July 2025 when Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul Singh publicly alleged that China had provided Pakistan with “live inputs” on Indian positions during the conflict. Speaking at a defence industry event in New Delhi, Singh said India had effectively faced “two adversaries”, with Pakistan acting as the “front face” while China provided “all possible support”.
The latest remarks from New Delhi come even as India and China have attempted normalisation of ties following the 2020 eastern Ladakh border standoff which froze ties for four years. While both sides have resumed diplomatic engagement and reactivated bilateral mechanisms over the past year, India has maintained that broader normalisation of relations depends on peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control.
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