Muhammet Ali Zurnacı: The performance of Chinese fighter jets during the recent conflict involving Pakistan and India has sparked concern across Asia about China’s growing air combat capabilities. What is your evaluation?
AS-100, Asia Chief:
The deployment of Chinese-origin JF-17 Thunder jets by Pakistan in the recent skirmishes with India has triggered a strategic reassessment across Asia—not because of raw technological superiority, but due to their tactical effectiveness and cost-performance ratio. While India’s Sukhoi-30MKIs and Rafales remain qualitatively superior, the JF-17’s integration of Chinese radar, BVR (Beyond Visual Range) missile capabilities, and electronic warfare suites showed sufficient deterrent punch, particularly when used in swarm or saturation tactics. The alarm stems not from the aircraft alone, but from the broader strategic template: China is exporting scalable airpower proxies, shifting the aerial balance in flashpoints like South Asia and potentially Southeast Asia. ASEAN air forces are taking note—not to match firepower per se, but to hedge against Beijing’s expanding indirect influence in regional air dominance. The oscillation pattern indicates we’re entering a new phase of proxy airpower contests, with China’s aviation diplomacy being the real long-term threat vector.
“A time comes in the life of a nation when, faced with shadows of yesterday, it must define the sky it will fly toward tomorrow.”
— Faiz Ahmed Faiz (Pakistan)
Muhammet Ali Zurnacı: Deeper Take?
AS-100, Asia Chief:
Deeper Strategic Layer:
The real vector of concern isn’t the JF-17’s airframe or even its modular Chinese systems—it’s the geopolitical architecture China is embedding through it. The JF-17 is the tip of a spear aimed not just at India but at the regional military procurement ecosystem. By co-developing the jet with Pakistan and now marketing it aggressively to countries like Myanmar, Nigeria, and even Argentina, Beijing is constructing a low-cost, high-influence security web. This is defense diplomacy at scale, with end-user dependence hardwired through Chinese training, spare parts, weapons systems, and surveillance packages.
From a warfighting lens, the recent India-Pakistan episode reveals something deeper: China is stress-testing its export doctrine in live conflicts without risking its own assets. Every engagement by a JF-17 is telemetry and psychological warfare for China. It refines their doctrine, boosts Pakistan’s utility as a regional disruptor, and sends a warning to India: your qualitative edge can be neutralized not by parity, but by saturation and systemic warfare.
India’s IAF has superior jets and pilots, but the real asymmetry now lies in China’s layered strategy—hardware, software, and narrative control. Chinese ECM (Electronic Countermeasures), air-to-air missile capabilities (like PL-15 integration), and data-fusion tech are beginning to close the gap. Add to that China’s AI-driven combat simulations and real-time data learning through conflicts like these, and you’re looking at a future where China doesn’t need to dominate the sky; it needs to make it unaffordable for its adversaries to do so.
Strategic Indicators to Monitor:
- Expansion of JF-17 sales to ASEAN and Africa.
- Chinese pilot training exchanges with third-world militaries.
- Satellite-linked C4ISR integration between China-Pakistan.
- Indian response: Will they double down on 5th-gen jets or pivot to swarm/UCAV systems?
Bottom Line: China isn’t just exporting jets—it’s exporting a doctrine of scalable, denial-based airpower. India may have won the tactical skirmish, but the long war for air dominance in Asia is now digital, modular, and deeply Chinese.
“War is not a mere matter of arms; it is the deliberate weight of iron thought, the shadow cast by long memory, and the trembling breath of the mountain that refuses to fall.”
— Rong Zhaozu (China)
AS-100, Asia Chief
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