Pakistan "succeeded" militarily against India during their four-day clash in May 2025, a new report to the US Congress said, in a rare acknowledgement from a Washington body reviewing the crisis and China's role in it.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission's 2025 annual report described the May 7-10 exchange as the most intense fighting between India and Pakistan in half a century, triggered by New Delhi's response to a terrorist attack that killed 26 civilians in Pahalgam, a hill station in India-administered Kashmir.
Both militaries struck targets "farther into one another's territories than at any time in 50 years", the report said.
According to the Commission, Pakistan "showcased" its battlefield gains using Chinese-supplied systems, stating that "Pakistan's military success over India in its four-day clash showcased Chinese weaponry".
The report said that Pakistan relied on Chinese intelligence support, according to Indian claims, though Islamabad denied the allegation and Beijing neither confirmed nor denied its role.
Beijing's defence sales push
The Commission — tasked by Congress to assess strategic risks stemming from China's rise — framed the May fighting as an episode Beijing "opportunistically leveraged" to test its modern weapons in live combat.
The clash marked the first battlefield use of Chinese HQ-9 air defence systems, PL-15 air-to-air missiles and J-10 fighter aircraft.
China supplies roughly 82 percent of Pakistan's arms imports, the report added, citing data from 2019 to 2023.
In the aftermath, Chinese embassies publicly praised their systems' performance in the clash, the Commission said, and Pakistan's downing of Indian jets using Chinese weapons became a key talking point for Beijing's defence sales push.
The report discussed a broader assessment of Chinese military and geopolitical expansion across Asia, including deepening China-Pakistan security cooperation and rising India-China tensions.
Pakistan says it shot down at least six Indian jets, including the French-made Rafale, causing major embarrassment to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government.
