Transcription
against a French flagship, the Rafale, to thwart a record aircraft sales contract with India. ... - A Chinese demonstration of force in the air. In this promotional clip, Beijing praises the merits of its J-10 fighter jet, a direct competitor to the French Rafale. A war of influence fueled by a virulent disinformation campaign, or how China targets the Rafale to weaken France's image. Beijing's offensive begins in one of its neighboring countries, India. Last February, E. Macron visited there to discuss a strategic partnership. Very quickly, a fake AI-generated video goes viral. - E. Macron: We have already lost 1 billion dollars on the Rafale market due to the inefficiency of the Indian Air Force. We cannot tarnish our reputation further. - The French president never said that. Behind this disinformation campaign is Pakistan, in conflict with India, but also China, which supplies its fighter jets to the Pakistani army. In May 2025, India and Pakistan clash for several days during Operation Sindoor. Rafale on one side, J-10 on the other, engaging in a battle in the sky. China closely follows the events. This news site broadcasts a live alert. A lie that looks like official communication, but also more humorous content that spreads virally on Chinese social networks. ... Only one Rafale was ultimately destroyed during the clashes between India and Pakistan. Enough for China to boast of its superiority in a report on its major successes in 2025. On the last page, a photo of the J-10 accompanied by this comment. ... A large-scale offensive against the Rafale that continues very concretely in diplomatic corridors, according to this report from the US Senate. ... Faced with these destabilization operations, the French Ministry of Armed Forces retaliates by communicating about the fake news circulating around the Rafale. The Chief of Staff of the Air and Space Force, Jérôme Bellanger, calls for leveraging this new information war. Similar to what the Americans did last June, in Iran, by feigning an attack to the west. Strategic deception so that B-2 bombers could hit their target to the east. - They controlled the pseudo-leaks and fueled comments about the deployment of B-2s to the west. In the end, the real package went east. It worked perfectly. - Despite China's objections, the Rafale continues to be exported very well. 26 fighter jets were delivered in 2025 by Dassault, 15 of them to foreign countries. - C. Roux: We were talking about China being the master of the game, positioning itself on the side of international law... China knows how to do that here. - Gen. P. Dutartre: It's all quite new. There are many reasons for that. The Rafale is the flagship of the French army and of France. At the time, the CIA conducted an investigation into Dassault. "How is it that this small company manages to compete with our fighters?" The Rafale competes with the American F-35. There are many reasons for this. First, the Chinese cannot sell their own aircraft. It sells very little. It is sold to Pakistan and a little to Indonesia. But we also have contracts with Indonesia. The Rafale is doing very well. They couldn't sell it to Egypt. There was also that famous Operation Sindoor in May 2025 where there was a frontal attack between Pakistanis and Indians. They are irreconcilable enemies. They are also 2 nuclear powers. I work with them. I have never seen so much hatred in the eyes of the other. It is in China's best interest to denigrate the Rafale. On the one hand, it avoids a mega contract from India, 114 Rafales... That's 200 latest-generation combat aircraft on its border. It has no interest in that. And discrediting the Rafale can be good for selling its J-10. - C. Roux: Question. - Gen. P. Dutartre: It's happening, though. I was in Beijing from 2007 to 2009. Combat aviation was lagging. They were using Russian equipment. The pilots were not well trained. It was still the Soviet method. It's very characteristic. It's the controller who pilots the plane and not the pilot, unlike Westerners. The controller gives orders to the pilots. It's extremely bad for aerial combat. They have made a lot of progress. When you see what they are doing in electric cars, in drones... They are the best in the world currently in small drones. When you see what they are doing in space... They are making robots and starting to progress. - C. Roux: We made a comparative table. - P. Allémonière: China has the second largest military budget in the world after the United States. Beyond all these figures... We must not underestimate the capability and performance of Chinese equipment. They have very high-performance equipment. Simply, for aircraft, they lack interoperability capabilities. All of this communicates poorly. This is also what holds the Chinese back. They are pushing hard. Their army has a major flaw: it has never fought. Americans have been fighting since the dawn of time. Not necessarily successfully, but they fight. They have experience in warfare. It's not the studies that all Chinese strategists can do by studying what Americans do in the Gulf or elsewhere that will give them practice. - C. Roux: That would be their handicap if they got the idea to go to Taiwan. - P. Allémonière: On Taiwan, they discovered something wonderful with the Strait of Hormuz, which is economic encirclement. - A. Bellanger: The real problem posed by the armaments that China supplies, particularly to Iran but also to other countries, is that when they have been tested, they have been crushed. China had given an anti-aircraft defense system to Iran, which complained about it. When the reality of the ground came, when the Israelis and Americans came to bomb Iran a few weeks ago, they were all flattened, the launchers. They rushed to supply portable anti-aircraft defense, which had nothing technologically in common with what they had sold to the Iranians. Then, France supplies turnkey equipment that is independent of the major powers, the United States, China... When you are a Southeast Asian country and you are a neighbor of China, you don't really want to see your defense architecture defined by someone who would a priori be your primary adversary. The problem the Rafale poses to China is Indonesia, perhaps the Philippines... These are countries that do not want to fall into the hands of China or the United States or Russia. They want an adjacent solution that does not contradict American armaments, the interoperability that P. Allémonière was talking about. Furthermore, they want proven equipment. For that matter, the Rafale has been proven in the field. - C. Roux: I discovered that there was a Chinese logistics support base in Djibouti. They have positions... It's not called a "military base," apparently, but they have strategic support in the region, the Chinese. - G. Lagane: They created this base in Djibouti about twenty years ago. It was in the context of the war that many states were waging against Somali pirates. The Chinese, due to their dependence on energy imports, have developed what is sometimes called the string of pearls strategy. Between the Middle East and China, it's the idea of creating a series of ports to which Chinese ships could head and in which military equipment could be stored to protect this route. This base in Djibouti is part of it, it's a bit of the crown jewel...