China has officially confirmed for the first time that its engineers were present at a Pakistani air base during last year's military conflict with India. Chinese media aired interviews with AVIC engineers linked to Pakistan's Chinese-made J-10CE fighter jets. India had earlier claimed China gave Pakistan real-time support during the conflict.
New Delhi: In what amounts to a stunning admission, China has officially confirmed for the first time that its engineers provided on-site technical support to Pakistan during last May's military conflict with India – a claim India had repeatedly made. China's state broadcaster CCTV on Thursday aired an interview with Zhang Heng, an engineer from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China's (AVIC) Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute – the very facility that builds China's most advanced fighter jets. Zhang was stationed at a Pakistani air base during the conflict.
India Said It. China Confirmed It.
India had on multiple occasions asserted that China was actively involved in supporting Pakistani operations during the May conflict.
For months, those claims were brushed aside. Now, straight from Beijing's own state media, comes the confirmation India had been waiting for.
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Zhang himself described the conditions on the ground: “At the support base, we frequently heard the roar of fighter jets taking off and the constant wail of air-raid sirens. By late morning in May, the temperature was already approaching 50 degrees Celsius. It was a real ordeal for us, both mentally and physically.”
That's not a support role from thousands of kilometres away. That's boots on the ground.
The J-10CE Factor
Pakistan's Chinese-supplied J-10CE fighters – the export variant of the 4.5-generation J-10C – are now at the centre of the story.
During the conflict, at least one of these jets is reported to have shot down a French-made Rafale fighter operated by India, the Chinese engineer claimed.
It was a historic first on two counts – the J-10CE's first confirmed air combat kill, and the first time a Rafale had ever been downed in combat.
AVIC engineer Xu Da, who was also embedded with Pakistani forces, called the J-10CE their “child.” He said: "We nurtured it, cared for it, and finally handed it over to the user. And now, it was facing a major test."
He added: "As for the outstanding results the J-10CE achieved, we weren't very surprised... it felt inevitable."
The Numbers Tell the Story
Pakistan is the only known foreign operator of the J-10C. It ordered 36 of the jets along with 250 PL-15 air-to-air missiles back in 2020.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a staggering 80 per cent of Pakistan's arms imports between 2021 and 2025 came from China.
In other words, Pakistan didn't just fly Chinese jets in that conflict. It flew Chinese jets, armed with Chinese missiles, with Chinese engineers on standby at the base.
India’s Assertion Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh, the deputy chief of Indian Army made the most direct statement at the FICCI 'New Age Military Technologies' event on July 4, 2025. He had said: “We had one border and two adversaries, actually three. Pakistan was in the front. China was providing all possible support... When DGMO-level talks were on, Pakistan had the live updates of our important vectors, from China.”
His revelations were described as the first public official acknowledgment of China's real-time support to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.
