• India has blocked Chinese media accounts over support for Pakistan and after China renamed Arunachal Pradesh to Zangnan which translates to South Tibet.
• Pakistan used Chinese jets to down Indian aircraft, marking their combat debut and drawing international praise.
India blocked several Chinese state media accounts on Wednesday after accusing China of promoting Pakistani propaganda. India is being condemned internationally for its robust restriction on free speech. The move followed New Delhi’s outrage at Beijing’s decision to rename certain areas in the disputed border region of Arunachal Pradesh.
China issued a new list of what it called “standardised” place names in Arunachal Pradesh, referring to the region as Zangnan. The announcement triggered strong objections from India.
India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal dismissed the move, calling it “vain and preposterous.” He added, “Creative naming will not alter the undeniable reality that Arunachal Pradesh was, is, and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India.”
A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, Lin Jian, responded by stating the naming exercise was within China’s sovereign rights and that the territory in question belonged to Beijing.
Access to the X accounts of China’s state-run news agency Xinhua and the nationalist tabloid Global Times was restricted within India. Turkey’s TRT World was also affected. Both countries are close allies of Pakistan, with China supplying the vast majority of its military equipment. By Thursday, Global Times appeared to have been restored, reportedly due to a legal request.
These developments came amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. Following Indian attacks on civilians in Pakistan, Islamabad stated it had shot down several Indian fighter jets using Chinese-made J-10C aircraft armed with Chinese PL-15 missiles. According to Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, the aircraft downed were French-built Rafales. Dar told parliament that China had been informed and reacted positively. Chinese social media users celebrated the incident.
The use of J-10Cs in this context marks the first known instance of the aircraft and their advanced missiles being used in real combat. The encounter provided military experts a rare opportunity to assess Chinese defence technology in an actual conflict scenario.
“Any state producing or buying weapons is keen to see how the product does in real conflict. Tests and exercises can tell most about capabilities of weapons, but the ultimate test is often combat,” said Siemon Wezeman, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).
Sirzi estimates that China supplies over 80 percent of Pakistan’s military stock, including lighter jets, warships, and missile systems.
China’s weaponry has garnered international acclaim — a development that has evidently unsettled India.
India has launched a sweeping crackdown on digital platforms in recent weeks, targeting thousands of accounts—among them respected journalists and media organisations. Press freedom groups have voiced grave concern.
The India-Pakistan clashes have been described as the worst military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed rivals in decades.
India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, have a long history of border disputes and mistrust. Their 3,800-kilometre border in the Himalayas remains contentious. In 2020, a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops—one of the deadliest confrontations between the two countries in recent memory.
