What the Chinese whisper war tells us about our strategic blind spots

With two months having passed without any incident, the country is shifting focus from the immediacy of armed conflict to a dispassionate assessment of the lessons from

Operation Sindoor

. The exercise is important because it is unlikely that the

Pahalgam massacre

of April 22 will be the last occasion India will experience another terrorist outrage. What India’s military did right is now receiving quiet global acknowledgement. However, every crisis also throws up unanticipated challenges, and it is important to assess some of these.
In the past fortnight, thanks to the public disclosure of a French intelligence report, there is greater awareness of the disinformation campaign undertaken by China. The outrageous claim by Pakistan that it destroyed as many as five Rafale fighter aircraft of the

Indian Air Force

on the first day of Sindoor found few takers, except in a section of the social media. However, Chinese missions craftily used the whispers to undermine confidence in Dassault and boost the efficacy of its own armaments industry.