Says China shared live data on India assets with Pak, Turkey provided drones
China used the four-day India-Pakistan conflict in May like a “live lab” to test various weapon systems and was providing all possible support to Islamabad, in line with its ancient military strategy of killing the adversary with a “borrowed knife”, Deputy Chief of Army Staff (DCOAS) Lt Gen. Rahul R Singh said on Friday.
The senior military officer said while Pakistan was the “front face”, with China extending all possible support to its all-weather ally, Turkiye was also playing a major role by supplying military hardware to Islamabad, adding that India was actually dealing with at least three adversaries during the May 7-10 conflict.
In an address at a seminar on “New Age Military Technologies” organised by industry chamber FICCI, Lieutenant General Singh suggested that China used its satellites to monitor Indian military deployment as the Pakistani military was getting live inputs on it during the DGMO (Director General of Military Operations)-level phone talks.
Lt. Gen Singh highlighted China’s ancient military strategy of “36 stratagems” and killing the adversary with a “borrowed knife” to buttress the point that Beijing extended all possible support to Pakistan to cause pain to India.
Lt. Gen. Singh, who looks after the Indian Army’s capability development and sustenance vertical, said Beijing’s support to Islamabad was not surprising as 81 per cent of the military hardware used by the Pakistani armed forces are from China. “Pakistan was the front face. We had China providing all possible support. This is no surprise because if you look at statistics, in the last five years, 81 per cent of the military hardware that Pakistan is getting is all Chinese,” he said.
“He (China) would rather use the neighbour (Pakistan) to cause pain (to India) than getting involved in a mudslinging match on the northern border,” Lt Gen. Singh said.
He said Turkiye also played an important role in providing support to Pakistan.
The military officer underlined the need for India to learn its lessons from the conflict.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terrorist infrastructure in territories controlled by Pakistan, in response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 people were killed.