Who won the four-day India-Pakistan skirmish during Operation Sindoor? How many Rafale aircraft, the most expensive fighter jets the Indian Air Force has, did Pakistan shoot down?
Such questions were thrown up afresh after the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission submitted its annual report to the US Congress this week.
Senior Opposition leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday cited the report to attack the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"The 2025 Annual Report is almost 800 pages long. The sections on pages 108 and 109 are simply astonishing and beyond understanding. It describes the Pahalgam terror attack of April 2025 orchestrated by Pakistan as an 'insurgent attack'," Ramesh wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The Congress leader highlighted a portion of the report.
“China’s role in the May 7–10, 2025, clash between Pakistan’s and India’s militaries drew global attention as Pakistan’s military relied upon Chinese weaponry and reportedly leveraged Chinese intelligence,” the report says.
“During the clash, triggered by India’s response to a deadly insurgent attack that killed 26 civilians in its contested Jammu and Kashmir region [Sic], both countries attacked targets farther into one another’s territories than at any time in 50 years,” it adds.
However, later on page 121, Pahalgam is referred to as a terrorist attack.
Under a heading that says ‘China Used the SCO to Collaborate on Advanced Technologies’, the report mentions that China, Russia and India signed a declaration that “also condemned the 2025 Pahalgam terrorist attack that India attributes to Pakistan, a symbolically important gesture for India, which had refused to sign a June 2025 SCO statement because it omitted reference to the attacks.”
Did US commission refer to Pakistan’s ‘military success’?
Ramesh also wrote that the report "speaks of 'Pakistan's military success over India' in the four-day clash."
That is true.
On Page 109, the report says: “Pakistan’s military success over India in its four-day clash showcased Chinese weaponry. While characterization of this conflict as a “proxy war” may overstate China’s role as an instigator, Beijing opportunistically leveraged the conflict to test and advertise the sophistication of its weapons, useful in the contexts of its ongoing border tensions with India and its expanding defense industry goals.”
Did India lose Rafale aircraft to Pakistani fire?
The US report also talks about the much-discussed topic of how many fighter jets were shot down in the four-day skirmish.
“This clash was the first time China’s modern weapons systems, including the HQ-9 air defense system, PL-15 air-to-air missiles, and J-10 fighter aircraft were used in active combat, serving as a real-world field experiment,” the report says.
“In the weeks after the conflict, Chinese embassies hailed the successes of its systems in the India-Pakistan clash, seeking to bolster weapons sales.
“Pakistan’s use of Chinese weapons to down French Rafale fighter jets used by India also became a particular selling point for Chinese Embassy defense sales efforts despite the fact that only three jets flown by India’s military were reportedly downed and all may not have been Rafales,” it says.
“According to French intelligence, China initiated a disinformation campaign to hinder sales of French Rafales in favor of its own J-35s, and it used fake social media accounts to propagate AI and video game images of supposed “debris” from the planes China’s weaponry destroyed,” it adds.
What does the US report mean?
The the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission was created in October 2000 to monitor, investigate and submit an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, and to provide recommendations, where appropriate, to Congress for legislative and administrative action.
To that extent, it reflects the official assessment of what Washington officially sees as China’s involvement.
Security analysts were quick to point out, however, that it is not a classified report and is available to the public. And it references media reports.
For example, the figure of three Indian jets downed referenced an Associated Press report from July.
That report said: “India has not officially mentioned on aircraft losses in Operation Sindoor. French Air Force chief Gen Jerome Bellanger said that he's seen evidence pointing to just 3 Indian 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.”
US President Donald Trump has publicly claimed on more than one occasion that eight or nine fighter jets were shot down in the clash, without specifying who shot down whose aircraft.
Ergo, the fog of war still hangs heavy over the exact details of the night when India struck terrorist camps deep inside Pakistan following the massacre of tourists in Pahalgam, and the military conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours that followed.
And the questions still swirl.