India on Tuesday tacitly criticised China for supporting Pakistan during a brief but intense conflict last year, saying responsible nations should reflect on how their efforts to shield terrorist infrastructure affect their global standing.
The comments by external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal came days after China's state broadcaster CCTV aired an interview with a military aviation engineer, who said his firm provided technical support to Pakistan during the four-day conflict in May 2025.
Jaiswal told a media briefing that India had launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, 2025, as a targeted response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam in April last year that killed 26 civilians.
India's military strikes on terrorist infrastructure at nine locations triggered hostilities that ended when Indian and Pakistani military officials reached an understanding on May 10, 2025.
'Reports corroborate what was known'
“We have seen these reports that corroborate what was known earlier. Operation Sindoor was a precise, targeted and calibrated response to the terrorist attacks in Pahalgam, aimed at destroying state sponsored terrorist infrastructure operating out of Pakistan and at its behest,” Jaiswal said while responding to a question on the media report about China providing support to Pakistan during the conflict.
“It is for nations [which] consider themselves responsible to reflect whether supporting attempts to protect terrorist infrastructure affects their reputation and standing,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“It is for nations [which] consider themselves responsible to reflect whether supporting attempts to protect terrorist infrastructure affects their reputation and standing,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}The report aired last week by CCTV was the first confirmation of China providing on-site support to Pakistan during the hostilities.
According to South China Morning Post, Zhang Heng, an engineer with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China’s (AVIC) Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, told CCTV that he provided technical support to Pakistan during the conflict.
Chinese jet in focus
“At the support base, we frequently heard the roar of fighter jets taking off and the constant wail of air-raid sirens,” Zhang said.
He said his team was driven by the “desire to do an even better job with on‑site support” and to ensure their equipment could “truly perform at its full combat potential”.
“That wasn’t just a recognition of the J‑10CE, it was also a testament to the deep bond we formed through working side by side, day in and day out,” Zhang said.
The J-10CE is the export variant of China's J-10C combat jet. Pakistan is the only known operator of the aircraft outside China.
Xu Da, another employee of the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute who too was involved in providing on-site support to Pakistan during the conflict, told CCTV about the jet’s performance during the hostilities. “As for the outstanding results the J-10CE achieved, we weren’t very surprised, and it didn’t feel sudden at all,” Xu said.
“The aircraft just needed the right opportunity. And when that moment came, it delivered exactly as we knew it would,” Xu said.
On May 7, Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai, the deputy chief of Indian Army staff for strategy, had highlighted the "collusivity" between Pakistan and China in last year's conflict.
“The fact is that Pakistan and China, in their own words, have a relationship that is deeper than the seas, higher than the mountains – that's a given. The fact that Pakistan has 80% of its military equipment of Chinese origin is a given,” he told a media briefing.