India-Pakistan conflict offers rich intelligence opportunity for China

The conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir offers a potentially rich intelligence harvest for China in its own rivalry with India as it gleans data from its fighter jets and other weapons used in action by Pakistan.

- REUTERS

Security analysts and diplomats say China’s military modernisation has reached a point where it has the ability to deeply scrutinise Indian actions in real time from its border installations and Indian Ocean fleets as well as from space.

"From an intelligence perspective, this is a rare target of opportunity right on China’s borders involving a key potential adversary," said Singapore-based security analyst Alexander Neill.

Two US officials said a Chinese-made J-10 Pakistani jet fighter shot down at least two Indian military planes one of them a French-made Rafale fighter. India has not acknowledged the loss of any of its planes while Pakistan’s defence and foreign ministers have confirmed the use of J-10 aircraft but not commented on which missiles or other weapons were used.