AILSA CHANG, HOST:
For the first time, a Chinese fighter plane made a debut in an active conflict.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: PAF's Vigorous Dragon is here.
CHANG: Pakistani pilots manned the Chinese J-10C during four days of clashes against India in May. And the consequences of that debut may be far-reaching. NPR's Diaa Hadid has more from Mumbai, and her story includes reporting from NPR's Emily Feng in Washington.
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: The Chinese fighter jets made an appearance after India launched strikes on Pakistan in May.
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HADID: India says it was retaliation for an attack two weeks earlier where militants killed 26 people. Pakistan said it wasn't connected and it fought back. It was the most serious fighting in decades.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
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HADID: One piece of hardware that Pakistan used commanded outsized attention. The Chengdu J-10C Vigorous Dragon, or the J-10. It's in the league of the F-16 or the French Rafale. That fighter jet is used by militaries around the world, including India's. And soon after fighting began, Pakistan claimed that their J-10 squadron downed three of those French-made Rafales.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: CNN and Reuters later reported that Pakistan likely downed one Rafale. Only weeks later, the Indian chief of defense staff confirmed that they lost aircraft but gave no further details. But the debut of the J-10 was not lost on those watching this conflict.
BRENDAN MULVANEY: The old commercial used to say, you know, this ain't your daddy's Oldsmobile.
HADID: Brendan Mulvaney is a director of the U.S. Department of the Air Force's China Aerospace Studies Institute.
MULVANEY: The Indians were flying a very modern, very capable aircraft, and the Pakistanis were flying a Chinese aircraft and shot it down with a Chinese air-to-air missile.
HADID: Chinese social media went wild. This clip went viral.
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HADID: Chinese men dance, Bollywood style, with toy airplanes stuck to their Indian turbans and taunt to an Indian tune.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: They sing, "what a shame those planes were destroyed." The planes were the most prominent kit, but so much more comes from China. Ayesha Siddiqa is an expert on Pakistan's military.
AYESHA SIDDIQA: By the time we got into this round of conflict, Pakistan's weaponry, 72- to 80%, has been from China.
HADID: That gave the appearance to many Indians that China was ganging up with Pakistan. India and China have longstanding border disputes. This is retired Indian Major General Ashok Kumar.
ASHOK KUMAR: Pakistan used the entire weaponry provided by China. So indirectly, it has became a fight with China.
HADID: He says that's what made the four-day conflict in May far more serious than previous bouts of fighting between India and Pakistan. But one analyst argues China isn't seeking to be a partner in Pakistan's fight with India. This is associate professor of political science at University of Albany, Christopher Clary.
CHRISTOPHER CLARY: China has been hesitant to take a public role other than voicing support for Pakistan and encouraging restraint.
HADID: But Clary says China will keep weapons flowing for Pakistan for its next fight with India.
CLARY: What seems to be changing about modern China is it has the military capabilities to be a partner that can keep another state, like Pakistan, in a fight.
HADID: And the next fight is likely to be far more severe because the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vowed to hit Pakistan even harder next time.
CLARY: With Indian officials saying publicly that terrorism on Indian soil will be greeted by a military response, it is reasonable to expect that the next crisis will be quite severe.
HADID: But not everything China supplied Pakistan was top-notch. Pakistan's Chinese-supplied air defenses appear to have largely failed during the fighting. India struck deep into Pakistan multiple times, including a military base near the capital. Mulvaney of the China Aerospace Studies Institute says, regardless...
MULVANEY: We should give it due respect. They're not quite as good as, you know, what the U.S. and our allies and partners use, but they're pretty darn good. They don't need as-cool-as-Gucci equipment.
HADID: Good enough. And that may be enough in the next round of fighting. With Emily Feng in Washington, I'm Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Mumbai.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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