A report submitted to the US Congress mentions Pakistan’s “military success” over India during the four-day conflict in May this year.
“Pakistan’s military success over India in their four-day standoff put a spotlight on Chinese weaponry,” said a report submitted to the US Congress on Tuesday by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, formed to report on the national security implications of the US-China bilateral trade and economic relationship.
Pakistan initially said it shot down five Indian aircraft in air-to-air combat during the conflict, but later raised the number to seven. Islamabad has denied any loss of its aircraft and says it hit 26 Indian targets after three air bases were attacked. US President Donald Trump, who continues to comment on the conflict, recently said that eight planes were “essentially” shot down.
In its annual report, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission referred to the May conflict and said China used it to “test and advance its own defense capabilities.”
The report presented to Congress also highlighted China’s role in the conflict, saying it attracted global attention as “Pakistan’s military relied on Chinese weaponry and allegedly took advantage of Chinese intelligence.”
He also cited New Delhi’s claims that China helped Pakistan with “live input on Indian military positions throughout the crisis,” adding that “Pakistan denied these allegations, and China neither confirmed nor denied its degree of involvement.”
According to the report, China expanded its military cooperation with Pakistan in 2025, “aggravating its own security tensions with India.”
In November and December 2024, China and Pakistan held the three-week Warrior-VIII anti-terrorism exercises, and in February this year, China’s navy participated in Pakistan’s AMAN multinational exercises, the report recalled, adding that these exercises highlighted the “growing defense cooperation” between the two countries.
“Indian commentators viewed the exercises as losses in its relationship with China and as direct threats to the security of its territorial positions,” the report said.
Referring to the May conflict, the report said: “While [the] Characterizing this conflict as a ‘proxy war’ may exaggerate China’s role as an instigator, Beijing opportunistically took advantage of the conflict to test and publicize the sophistication of its weapons, useful in the context of its current border tensions with India and its increasing targets in the defense industry.
The report also mentions that as Pakistan’s largest defense supplier, China provided about 82 percent of the country’s arms imports between 2019 and 2023.
The May clash was the first time China’s modern weapons systems, including the HQ-9 air defense system, PL-15 air-to-air missiles and J-10 fighter jets, were used in active combat, serving as a real-world field experiment, the report added.
He also claimed that China reportedly offered to sell 40 J-35 fifth-generation fighter jets, KJ-500 aircraft and ballistic missile defense systems to Pakistan in June. “That same month, Pakistan announced a 20 percent increase in its defense budget for 2025-2026, raising planned expenditures to $9 billion despite an overall budget decline.”
“In the weeks following the conflict, Chinese embassies praised the successes of their systems in the India-Pakistan standoff, seeking to boost arms sales,” the report alleges.
He also mentioned accusations by French intelligence that China launched a “disinformation campaign to hinder French Rafale sales in favor of its own J-35s” and used “fake social media accounts to spread artificial intelligence and video game images of supposed ‘debris’ from planes that China’s weaponry destroyed.”
The conflict between Pakistan and India was sparked by an attack on tourists in occupied Kashmir, which New Delhi, without evidence, linked to Pakistan. Islamabad strongly denied responsibility and called for a neutral investigation.
But New Delhi launched deadly airstrikes in Punjab and Azad Kashmir on May 7, marking the start of a four-day standoff. After reciprocal attacks on the air bases of each of the two sides, it took US intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally reach a ceasefire.
