'Operation Sindoor a message for China?' asks US journalist, here's Shashi Tharoor's response

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is currently in the US for Operation Sindoor outreach, was asked by a journalist if India's May 7 military action against Pakistan was meant to be a message to China.

Giving a witty response to the journalist at the National Press Club in Washington DC, Tharoor said, “I do believe that what happened on the night of the 9th and 10th speaks for itself, and even more so, the immediate reaction of Pakistan the next morning to call off the conflict also speaks very vividly for itself, and maybe that's the message the Chinese will have to look at.”

“The fact that they (Pakistan) were using Chinese weapons and we were bypassing some of the Chinese radar defences, and the famous sort of Chinese network system, that's supposed to be the great sort of Chinese 'kill chain' we read about in the newspapers. When India decided to bypass some of those threats and hit the airfields, I don't think they're worrying about who gets the message," the Indian leader further said.

Tharoor also said, “They wanted to make sure that the Pakistanis got the message, and they got the rough end of what we were sending them, which they did.”

Pakistan's false claims

On May 7, 2025, India launched a military action against nine terror sites in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam attack on April 22. In the attack in Jammu and Kashmir, terrorists killed 26 people, mostly tourists.

After India's retaliation, Pakistani foreign minister Ishaq Dar told Parliament that Chinese J-10C jets were used to shoot down five Indian aircraft, including Rafale jets - a claim that India has never confirmed.

But things turned when the Chinese foreign ministry denied knowledge of any such incident.