
French intelligence claims China trying to foil global sale of Rafale jets
The Associated Press news agency, quoting French officials, reported on Sunday that Beijing is working to harm the reputation and sales of France's flagship fighter aircraft.
French officials say they have found that the Chinese embassies are trying to undermine Rafale sales by persuading countries that have already ordered the jets, notably Indonesia, not to buy them and instead choose Chinese-made fighters.
The AP report said the findings were shared by a French military official on condition that they should not be named.
Four days of India-Pakistan clashes in May were the most serious confrontation in years between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, which included air combat involving dozens of aircraft from both sides.
Military officials and researchers have since been digging for details of how Pakistan's Chinese-made military hardware – particularly warplanes and air-combat missiles – fared against weaponry that India used in air strikes on Pakistani targets, notably French-made Rafale fighters.
Sales of Rafales and other armaments are big business for the French defence industry and help Paris to strengthen ties with other nations, including in Asia, where China is becoming the dominant regional power.
India confirms losses
Pakistan says its air force downed five Indian planes during the fighting, including three Rafales. French officials say that prompted questions about their performance from countries that have bought the fighter from French manufacturer Dassault Aviation.
India acknowledged aircraft losses but did not say how many. French air force chief General Jerome Bellanger said he has seen evidence pointing to just three aircraft losses – a Rafale, a Russian-made Sukhoi and a Mirage 2000, which is an earlier generation French-made jet.
It was the first known combat loss of a Rafale, which France has sold to eight countries. 'Of course, all those, the nations that bought Rafales, asked themselves questions,' Bellanger said.
French officials have been battling to protect the plane from reputational damage, pushing back against what they allege was a concerted campaign of Rafale-bashing and disinformation online from Pakistan and its ally, China.
They say the campaign included viral posts on social media, manipulated imagery showing supposed Rafale debris, AI-generated content and video-game depictions to simulate supposed combat.
More than 1,000 social media accounts newly created as the India-Pakistan clashes erupted also spread a narrative of Chinese technological superiority, according to French researchers who specialise in online disinformation.
French claims
Military officials in France say they have not been able to link the online Rafale-bashing directly to the Chinese government.
But the French intelligence service said Chinese embassy defence attaches echoed the same narrative in meetings they held with security and defence officials from other countries, arguing that Indian Rafale jets performed poorly and promoting Chinese-made weaponry.
The defence attaches focused their lobbying on countries that have ordered Rafales and other potential customer nations that are considering purchases, the intelligence service said. It said French officials learned of the meetings from nations that were approached.
The French Ministry for Armed Forces said the Rafale was targeted by 'a vast campaign of disinformation' that 'sought to promote the superiority of alternative equipment, notably of Chinese design'.
'The Rafale was not randomly targeted. It is a highly capable fighter jet, exported abroad and deployed in a high-visibility theatre,' the French ministry wrote on its website.
Asked by AP to comment on the alleged effort to dent Rafale's appeal, the Ministry of National Defence in Beijing said: 'The relevant claims are pure groundless rumours and slander. China has consistently maintained a prudent and responsible approach to military exports, playing a constructive role in regional and global peace and stability.'
Dassault Aviation has sold 533 Rafales, including 323 exported to Egypt, India, Qatar, Greece, Croatia, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia and Indonesia. Indonesia has ordered 42 planes and is considering buying more.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
‘We are all Vietnamese and came to Germany to build a better life'
Berlin, Germany – In 1979, Kien Nghi Ha lived in Hanoi with his parents, who worked as electricians at a power plant, and his 12-year-old sister in one bedroom of a shared apartment. They shared the toilet and an outdoor kitchen area along with their neighbours. One of them, an elderly woman, would sometimes look after Ha, then seven years old, and his sister. He remembers the cool, smooth tiled floor offering comfort during the blistering summer heat. He would lie on it listening to the lively street noise and occasional sound of a tram beyond a green steel entrance door. Four years earlier, in 1975, North Vietnamese communist forces had defeated United States-aligned fighters in South Vietnam to take the whole country under a one-party system that remains in power today. Ha was part of an ethnically Chinese mixed Hoa Kieu minority. Communities like his, especially in the early post-war years, felt vulnerable. He remembers how children turned away from him after Vietnam invaded Cambodia, then an ally of China at that time in 1978, because of his heritage. 'Some even threw stones at me. This was very shocking, and I didn't understand at that time what was going on,' he said. The family decided to leave. His parents sold their valuables and embarked on a dangerous and costly trip by boat to Hong Kong. Despite no guarantees of safety, an estimated two million people would ultimately leave this way. At that time, those who feared for their future under the new Communist authorities could choose to resettle in one of three countries – West Germany, Australia or the United States. The choice was not available for long. When his uncle left Vietnam just three months later, people were only allowed to migrate to the US. Ha's parents opted for West Germany as they believed it offered a better work-life balance than the US. The fractures in Vietnam mirrored divisions in Germany, with North Vietnam backed by the USSR-aligned East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and the capitalist West Germany supporting South Vietnam. After arriving in Hong Kong, the family travelled by plane to Frankfurt and then on to Tegel airport in West Berlin, where journalists were waiting, eager to document the country welcoming so-called 'boat people'. 'I don't recall much from the arrival, but I do remember many journalists there wanting to take pictures of us,' Ha said. The family were provided an apartment within a social housing complex where thousands of people lived near the Berlin Wall on the west side. His father became a transport worker, while his mother was a cleaner in a children's nursery. Compared with other social housing at the time, Ha says, the flat was in good condition, with central heating and individual toilets. But the transition was not easy. Ha felt isolated as one of the only children from a minority background in his primary school. A different path Within months of the war's end, Vietnam signed diplomatic relations with the GDR, paving a different kind of path for Huong Mai to fly overseas a few years later. At 21, she left Hanoi for Moscow and then travelled to Schonefeld airport in East Berlin. She was among the first groups of contract workers and was soon employed at a factory that made drinking glasses. Now aged 64, Mai has a 27-year-old son and runs a textile shop in the town where she has lived since she arrived in the GDR. On April 30, Vietnam marked 50 years since the end of the war. For the large Vietnamese-German diaspora, who arrived as refugees and contract workers, this year's milestones have stirred a sense of reflection. Mai said she felt joy on the anniversary. 'My father resisted against the French colonialists, and then my older brother fought against the Americans. So, for me, the end of this war is very meaningful because of the blood that was shed by my family in all of these wars,' she said. Her brother followed in her footsteps, bringing his family to Germany in 2009. His daughter, 26-year-old Dieu Ly Hoang, now lives in Prenzlauer Berg, which is coincidentally the same neighbourhood as Ha. It is a sought-after area of the German capital, formerly in the GDR, now home to cosy cafes, posh restaurants, yoga studios and affluent expatriate families where English is heard on the streets more than German. 'It's been a very important aspect for me to see what my family went through, and how resilient they have been. I know I'm very lucky not to have experienced an evacuation and I can't imagine what it was like for my grandparents,' Ly said, as she recalled hearing stories about the wartime rations of rice. 'I acknowledge the sacrifices they made to migrate for a better life so that I could be born and live in peace,' said Ly, an art historian. Ha, now 53 and a father to two sons, is a postdoctoral researcher in the Asian German diaspora at the University of Tubingen and holds a PhD in cultural studies. Friendly, open and knowledgeable of the complex history he is a part of, Ha also said the commemorative events have felt significant. 'There's an intellectual and cultural discussion going on through which we are trying to make sense of this history and what this history means for us living in the German-Vietnamese diaspora,' he said. 'Questions pop up in private and public conversations, articles, books, and artworks. And knowing more about this history will improve our sense of self in German society, because we are able to discover more about a past that we, the younger generations, didn't experience on a personal level. This allows us to connect the past with the present.' An estimated 35,000 refugees arrived in West Germany in 1979, while 70,000 contract workers began to arrive in the GDR in 1980. When Germany unified in 1990, it brought together, at least physically, two communities. 'In the GDR, people were proud to show international solidarity, and this went hand in hand with hatred of the capitalist West, while the West German government saw the Vietnam War as part of the global struggle against communism,' explained German historian Andreas Margara. Ly said some of her relatives still mention it when they hear a southern Vietnamese accent. 'They do not become stressed nor do they act differently, but they notice the accent verbally, like 'Oh, this person is from the south'. They do not go further into details, but I can feel a certain differentiation there because there is this history there. My parents' generation, including people like war veterans, don't have the spaces in the diaspora to meet, share their experiences and understand each other more,' she said. 'Unified Germany, though, can be a space for more reconciliation.' She added that her generation has 'more chances and spaces for dialogue' as she recalled recently meeting a Vietnamese German art history student and having plenty about which to talk. Mai agreed that there are not many opportunities in her life to meet southerners, yet she feels no animosity. 'Even though Vietnam has been damaged a lot, we are all Vietnamese and came to Germany to build a better life for ourselves,' she said.


Al Jazeera
9 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
‘Nail in a coffin': Trump's steel, aluminum tariffs bleed Indian foundries
Kolkata, India — For the past several years, the United States has been a major market for Aditya Garodia to export more than 100 items of steel derivatives like fasteners from his factory in West Bengal state in eastern India. But ever since US President Donald Trump took office and unleashed a range of tariffs – 25 percent on steel and aluminium initially, as well as standalone country tariffs – global markets have been on edge, creating significant uncertainty for businesses across sectors. Garodia, director of Corona Steel Industry Pvt Ltd, told Al Jazeera that as a result of the tariffs, clients have slowed picking up their orders, delaying payments by a month on average, while business in general has slowed as customers adopted a wait-and-watch policy. When Trump announced that he was doubling tariffs on steel and aluminium to 50 percent from June 4, it was 'like a nail in a coffin', Garodia said, as nearly 30 percent of orders were cancelled. 'It is difficult for the market to absorb such high tariffs.' Demand in the domestic market has also been low because of competition from cheaper Chinese products, he said, adding their future depends on India negotiating a lower tariff for its exports to the US than its competitors. Last year, India exported $4.56bn worth of iron, steel and aluminium products to the US. Tariffs 'play well in politics' During his first term, Trump in 2018 imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminium under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, citing national security concerns. But certain businesses had managed to escape, as there were no tariffs on finished products. But on February 10, 2025, he announced 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium, including derivatives – or finished products – and removed all exemptions. Ajay Srivastava, founder of Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a trade research group, told Al Jazeera that higher tariffs imposed in 2018 have so far failed to revive the US steel industry. 'Since the tariffs were first implemented in 2018, [US] steel imports have increased,' rising from $98.6bn to $114bn in 2024, he said, and they 'haven't cut imports or boosted production, but they've mostly stuck around because they play well in politics'. As a result, prices in the US are far higher than in Europe or China, 'making cars, buildings, and machines more expensive to produce. India now needs a clear strategy to protect its trade interests, push for fair deals and strengthen domestic manufacturing,' Srivastava said. Foundries also affected In the so-called reciprocal tariffs that President Trump announced on April 2, he set a rate of 26 percent for goods from India. He put that on hold on April 9 for 90 days and introduced a 10 percent base tariff on all countries for the interim, giving them breathing room to strike individual trade deals with the US. While the 10 percent is hard enough on the businesses, foundries – where metals are melted to cast into shape – say 26 percent is too high for any business to absorb. India has approximately 5,000 foundries, of which 400 cater to both domestic and international markets and a further 100 are exclusively for exports. Several Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), in turn, supply pig iron, scrap and other items to the exporters. Indian foundries export products worth about $4bn globally, out of which the US market is $1.2bn, Ravi Sehgal, chairman of National Centre for Export Promotion (NCEP), said. In the US, they compete not only with local foundries but also with Chinese and Turkish suppliers. The latest set of tariffs will be a considerable blow to Indian foundries. More than 65 percent of these, and their suppliers of raw materials, are MSMEs that will 'face the brunt of tariffs due to lower orders', Sehgal said. Tariffs beyond 10-14 percent 'would [make it] difficult for us to survive,' he added. Pradeep Kumar Madhogaria, partner in Yashi Castings, which makes moulding boxes and pallet cars for foundries, said that several foundry projects have been either deferred or shelved, particularly those aligned to export-driven demand, due to the uncertainty in the US market. Smaller units badly hit Sumit Agarwal, 44, a Kolkata-based manufacturer of clamps, brackets and other items used in industrial goods, told Al Jazeera that his business has been hit hard by the tariffs and he is thinking of laying off some of his 15 employees. 'We are a small unit. The orders have practically dried up after the introduction of tariffs, which has made it difficult for us to continue with our existing staff. I am thinking about cutting at least 30-40 percent of my manpower. Business from the domestic market is just average, and the drop in the export market has added to our woes.' Shyam Kumar Poddar, 70, who runs a small unit of sheet metal fabrication in Kolkata, recently invested about 800,000 rupees ($9,400) to buy a hydraulic press with an aim to expand his business. But the drop in orders has affected him badly. 'I bought the machine just four months ago to expand my business, but there have been absolutely no orders for the past two months.' 'We depend on exporters for our business as there is already an intense competition in the domestic market, but the present scenario is harming small entrepreneurs like us.' Pankaj Chadha, chairman of Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC), an industry body, told Al Jazeera that diversification to countries like Peru and Chile, who would then export their finished products to the US, is the only way for survival as it was 'not possible to do business with such high tariffs'. Even as the 90-day pause on tariffs is set to expire soon, it's not clear yet what the final number will be as India and the US are yet to finalise a deal. On Friday, Piyush Goyal, India's minister of trade and industry, told reporters that while India was ready to make a trade deal, 'National interest will always be supreme', and it would not be driven by any deadlines. For now, Garodia is hoping a solution will be found fast. 'No industry can survive in isolation,' he said, listing US problems, including a manpower shortage as well as higher production and raw material costs. 'India offers them a good substitute with cheap labour and low cost of production,' he said.


Al Jazeera
10 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Israel bombs ports, power plant in Yemen as Houthis fire more missiles
Israel's military has bombed three ports and a power plant in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, prompting the rebel group to fire more missiles towards Israeli territory. The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck the ports of Hodeidah, Ras-Isa and as-Salif on the Red Sea coast as well as the Ras Kanatib power plant. It said it also struck a radar system on the Galaxy Leader ship, which was seized by the Houthis and remains docked in the port of Hodeidah. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The Israeli attacks late on Sunday were the first on Yemen in almost a month and came after the military claimed that it intercepted a missile fired by the Houthis in the early hours of the day. The rebel group, which controls Yemen's most populous areas, responded to the latest Israeli attacks by launching more missiles at Israel in the early hours of Monday. The Israeli military said two missiles were fired from Yemen, and that it attempted to intercept the projectiles. The attack set off sirens in the cities of Jerusalem, Hebron and near the Dead Sea. Israel's emergency service said there have been no reports of injuries or impact from the projectiles. The Houthis say their attacks on Israel are in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza who are under Israeli attack. The group has fired hundreds of missiles at Israel and launched more than 100 attacks on commercial vessels in the vital Red Sea corridor, since Israel's war on Gaza began in 2023. The Houthis paused their attacks after a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in January, but resumed them after the United States launched attacks on Yemen on March 15, killing nearly 300 people in the weeks that followed. The latest escalation comes at a sensitive moment in the Middle East as a possible ceasefire in Israel's war on Gaza hangs in the balance, and as Tehran weighs whether to restart negotiations over its nuclear programme following United States air strikes that damaged Iran's most sensitive atomic sites. In Yemen on Sunday night, the Houthi-affiliated news outlet Al Masirah TV reported that strikes hit the port city of Hodeidah, while the Saba news agency confirmed the attacks on the three power plants as well as the power station. A spokesman for the Houthis, Ameen Hayyan Yemeni, meanwhile, said the group's air defences forced 'a large portion' of Israel's warplanes to retreat. Locally-manufactured surface-to-air missiles were used to respond, 'causing great confusion among enemy pilots and operations rooms', he wrote in a statement on X. The attacks also took place after a grenade and drone attack on a Red Sea cargo ship set the vessel on fire and forced its crew to abandon it. No group has claimed the attack, but the United Kingdom maritime agency said it matched the 'established Houthi target profile'. Separately, Israeli forces also bombed Lebanon, claiming attacks on several Hezbollah targets in the country's south as well as the eastern Bekaa region. In a statement, the military said the strikes were directed at infrastructure used for 'storing and producing strategic weapons' and a 'rocket launch site'. Since a November 27 ceasefire formally ended more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, Israel has continued sporadic strikes on Lebanon. It says the group's activities run counter to the agreement, but does not provide evidence to back its claims. In addition to its ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces have launched attacks on the occupied West Bank, Syria and Iran over the past year.