Pakistan achieved military success over India in May’s four-day clash, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) has declared in face of Indian denial.

 

As per the details, the USCC, in its annual report submitted to the Congress after analysing economic and security dimensions of US-China relations, mentioned Beijing’s role in the May 7-10 clashes between Pakistan and India, which drew global attention.

 

“China’s role in the May 7–10, 2025, clash between Pakistan’s and India’s militaries drew global attention as Pakistan’s military relied upon Chinese weaponry and reportedly leveraged Chinese intelligence,” read the report.

 

It said the Indian Army claimed China helped Pakistan with “live inputs” on 109 Indian military positions throughout the crisis and effectively used the conflict as a testing ground for its own military capabilities. While the report mentioned Pakistan and China’s rubbishing of said claims, it went on to state that China expanded its military cooperation with Pakistan in 2025, compounding its own security tensions with India.

 

“In November and December 2024, China and Pakistan held the three-week Warrior-VIII counterterrorism drills, and in February 2025, China’s navy participated in Pakistan’s multinational AMAN drills, highlighting China’s and Pakistan’s growing defence cooperation. India’s commentators viewed the drills as losses in their relationship with China and as direct security threats to its territorial positions,” the report read.

 

“Pakistan’s military success over India in its four-day clash showcased Chinese weaponry. While characterization of this conflict as a ‘proxy war’ may overstate China’s role as an instigator, Beijing opportunistically leveraged the conflict to test and advertise the sophistication of its weapons, useful in the contexts of its ongoing border tensions with India and its expanding defence industry goals. As Pakistan’s largest defence supplier, China provided approximately 82 percent of the country’s arms imports from 2019 to 2023,” it added.

 

It went on to say that the clash was the first time China’s modern weapons systems, including the HQ-9 air defence system, PL-15 air-to-air missiles, and J-10 fighter aircraft were used in active combat, serving as a real-world field experiment.

 

“China reportedly offered to sell 40 J-35 fifth-generation fighter jets, KJ-500 aircraft, and ballistic missile defence systems to Pakistan in June 2025. That same month, Pakistan announced a 20 percent increase in its 2025–2026 defence budget, raising planned expenditures to $9 billion despite an overall budget decrease. In the weeks after the conflict, Chinese embassies hailed the successes of its systems in the India-Pakistan clash, seeking to bolster weapons sales.”

 

The report also mentioned Pakistan’s use of Chinese weapons to down French Rafale fighter jets, however, it presented a conflicting claim on the number of jets downed.