A USCC report says China “opportunistically” treated the May 2025 India-Pakistan clash as a live testing ground for its latest weapons and intelligence systems.
Pakistan reportedly relied heavily on Chinese platforms and real-time intelligence during the four-day conflict, though both countries deny Beijing’s involvement.
The episode marked the first combat use of modern Chinese systems and was followed by Beijing offering Islamabad a major new defence package.
US Report Says China Used India-Pakistan Clash To Test Its New Weapons
USCC flags Beijing’s real-time support to Pakistan during May 2025 conflict.
Summary
The recent U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission's (USCC) 2025 Annual Report to Congress, Beijing "opportunistically" used the India-Pakistan conflict in May 2025 as a live testing ground for its newest weapons and intelligence capabilities, raising serious concerns about China's growing military role in the region.
The study claims that while India fought against the devastating insurgent attack in Jammu & Kashmir that killed 26 people, Pakistan's military "reportedly leveraged Chinese intelligence" and heavily relied on Chinese weapons during the conflict. India and Pakistan hit targets more into each other's territory during the four-day combat than they have in fifty years.
According to the report, China sent Pakistan "live inputs" about Indian military deployments throughout the crisis, according to the Indian Army. Beijing used the fight to test its own military capabilities, according to the study, although China neither affirmed nor denied its involvement and Pakistan denied receiving any help.
The report also said that characterisation of the May conflict as a "proxy war" would overstate China's role as an "instigator".
Prior to the conflict, the statement emphasises China's strengthening defence cooperation with Pakistan. The PLA Navy participated in Pakistan's multinational AMAN exercises in February 2025 after both nations held the three-week Warrior-VIII counterterrorism drills in November–December 2024. These interactions were seen by Indian security analysts as direct threats to India's security environment and additional proof of China's expanding strategic influence in Pakistan.
The USCC claims that Pakistan's behaviour during the fight demonstrated Chinese platforms, with Beijing utilising the incident to test and promote systems pertinent to both its growing defence industry objectives and its border problems with India. Between 2019 and 2023, 82 per cent of Pakistan's arms imports came from China.
The report states that the May 2025 confrontation marked the first active combat use of China’s modern systems, including the HQ-9 air defence system, PL-15 air-to-air missiles, and J-10 fighter jets, turning the conflict into a “real-world field experiment.”
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Barely a month after the clash, in June 2025, China reportedly offered Pakistan a major new defence package: 40 J-35 fifth-generation fighter jets, KJ-500 airborne early-warning aircraft, and ballistic missile defence systems. The same month, Pakistan announced a 20 per cent increase in its defence budget, raising allocations to USD 9 billion, despite cuts in its overall national expenditure.
Chinese diplomats utilised the incident to support their global weapons sales pitch by openly praising the "successes" of Chinese systems employed by Pakistan in the weeks following the battle. According to the source, Pakistan's purported use of Chinese platforms to shoot down Indian fighter jets became a major talking point in China's diplomatic marketing, even though only three jets were apparently struck and not all of them were Rafales.
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