China Using Pakistan As Proxy To Validate Its Weapons: Deputy Army Chief
Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh on Friday said that China is using Pakistan as a proxy to test its military hardware.
Lieutenant General Singh was speaking at the ‘New Age Military Technologies’ seminar organized by FICCI in New Delhi.
He pointed out that China is using real-world conflicts as a “living laboratory” to evaluate its weapon systems.
“China is able to test its weapons against various other weapons, so its like a live lab available to them,” he said.
“This must be taken very seriously,” he cautioned.
Referring to the recent Operation Sindoor, launched in response to the terrorist attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians, Lt Gen Singh said, “It’s no surprise that 81% of the military equipment Pakistan has acquired in the past five years is Chinese. China would rather inflict pain through its neighbours than directly engage.”
Lieutenant General Singh said that Turkey and China had supported Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.
“We had one border and two adversaries, actually three. Pakistan was in the front. China was providing all possible support. Turkey also played an important role in providing the type of support it did. When DGMO-level talks were on, Pakistan was actually mentioning that your such and such important vectors are ready for action and requested us to pull it back. They were getting real time updates from China”, said the Lieutenant General.
On the need of a robust air defence system, he acknowledged that some indigenous air defence systems performed well during Operation Sindoor, while others revealed critical gaps.
“We don’t have the luxury of systems like Israel’s Iron Dome because of our vast geography and limited resources. Still, our population centres must be protected with layered air defence,” he said.
Lt Gen Singh underlined the growing role of drones, counter-drone systems, and long-range artillery in modern warfare.
“We need to move very fast. It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” he remarked.
He also emphasized the importance of enhancing C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) capabilities to maintain strategic dominance and civil-military fusion.
India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 innocent civilians were gunned down by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists. As part of Operation Sindoor, Indian armed forces launched precise strikes targeting nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK), killing more than 100 dreaded terrorists.
(With IANS Inputs)
