China used embassies to undermine sales of France’s flagship Rafale fighter jet

Paris (AP) -Çin, after seeing the war, deployed his embassies to spread doubts about French production Rafale Jets’ performance Conflicts of India and Pakistan in MayFrench military and intelligence officials led Beijing to withdraw the reputation and sales of the flagship warrior of France.

The findings from a French intelligence service seen by Associated Press say that the addition of defense in China’s foreign embassies caused a accusation to weaken Rafale sales by trying to convince the countries that have ordered the French fighter. Especially Indonesia -Not to buy more and encourage other potential buyers to choose Chinese -made aircraft. The findings were shared with AP by a French military official, provided that the official and intelligence service was not named.

In May, the four-day India-Pakistan conflicts were the most serious confrontations between the two. Nuclear armed neighborsAnd including the air war containing dozens of planes from both sides. Since then, military officials and researchers have been digging for details about how Pakistan’s Chinese-made military equipment-warplanes and air-war-missiles-Havaş missiles-how it goes to weapons used by India. Air attacks on Pakistani targetsEspecially French Rafale fighters.

A big job for the sales of Rafales and other weapons France’s defense industry and helps the government efforts to strengthen ties with other nations, including Asia, where China has become the dominant regional power.

France is fighting what he calls a disinformation campaign against Rafale

Pakistan claimed that the Air Force had dropped five Indian planes, including three Rafales during fighting. French authorities, the fighter French manufacturer Dassault Aviation said that the performances from countries that buy questions from countries, he says.

India accepted air losses, but how many did not say. French Air Force Chief Jérôme Bellanger said that he had seen evidence that he had only seen evidence pointing to 3 Indian losses-a Russian-made Sukhoi and a previous generation French-made jet Mirage 2000. A Rafale, France, was the first known war loss.

Bellanger, “Of course, Rafalas, the nations, asked them questions,” he said.

French authorities are fighting to protect the plane from reputation damage and pushing back against the online Rafale-Bashing and disinformation campaign from Pakistan and allied China.

The campaign says that viral messages on social media contain manipulated images showing the so -called Rafale debris, the content and the so -called war produced by AI and the manipulated images of video game depictions. According to French researchers specializing in online disinformation, more than 1,000 social media accounts, which were created as India-Pakistan conflicts erupted, spread a narrative of Chinese technological superiority.

French military officials say they could not directly connect the online rafale beating to the Chinese government.

Intelligence assessment says that Chinese authorities make potential customers lobbying to leave French planes

However, the French Intelligence Service argued that the Chinese Embassy Repent the same narrative at meetings with security and defense officials from other countries and that the Indian Air Force Rafalas performed badly and encouraged Chinese -made weapons.

Intelligence Service, defense attachments lobbying Rafalas and other potential customer nations considering the purchase of the countries that focus on the countries, he said. Authorized, French authorities learned that the meetings from the approached countries, he said.

The Ministry of Defense in Beijing, who was asked to comment on Rafale’s efforts to overcome the appeal of Rafale, said: “Related allegations and slander. China continued a cautious and responsible approach to military exports that played a constructive role in regional and global peace and stability.”

China has accelerated in recent years Disinformation campaigns X, on global social media platforms such as X, Instagram or Facebook, uses fake social media accounts to spread state -supported impressive networks, sites posing as news organizations and narratives from Beijing.

The French Ministry of Defense said that Rafale was targeted by a “a wide disinformation campaign ısıyan trying to encourage the superiority of alternative equipment, especially Chinese design”.

France sees jet as a ‘strategic French offer’

“Rafale has not been targeted randomly targeted. A highly talented fighter aircraft exported abroad and deployed in a high -visible theater.”

“Rafale was targeted because it represented a strategic French proposal. By attacking the plane, some actors tried to weaken the reliability of France and the defense industrial and technological base. The disinformation campaign did not only target a plane, but also more broadly strategic autonomy, industrial reliability and solid partnerships”.

Dassault Aviation, Egypt, India, Qatar, Greece, Croatia, United Arab Emirates, Serbia and Indonesia, including 533 Rafalas sold, including 323 for exports. Indonesia has ordered 42 aircraft and is considering buying more.

Justin Bronk, an air force expert from the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security thinking tank in London, may have hoped to weaken China’s security relations with Asian countries with Asian countries.

“In terms of limiting the influence of Western countries in Indo-Pacific, it would make sense to use China’s performance of Pakistani weapon systems, at least allegedly allegedly, to use a Rafale as a means to weaken its attractiveness as an export.”

“They certainly saw the opportunity to harm the French sales expectations in the region.”