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China opportunistically exploited the conflict between India and Pakistan earlier this year to conduct the first real-world combat test of several weapons systems supplied to Islamabad, a US congressional panel said.
India and Pakistan exchanged missile strikes, drone attacks, and heavy artillery shelling for four days in their worst conflict in over a quarter century in May, sparking fears of a full-fledged war between the nuclear-armed rivals. The fighting ended in a tense truce after the US negotiated a ceasefire.
India used French and Russian fighter jets during the conflict while Pakistan deployed a range of Chinese weapons.
The clash marked the debut of modern Chinese weapons systems such as the HQ-9 surface-to-air missile, the PL-15 air-to-air missile, and the J-10C fighter aircraft in a real-world field experiment, the bipartisan US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its annual report released on Tuesday.
China, the report said, “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”.
The Chinese were swift in hailing the successes of their weapons systems in the clash, it added.
open image in gallery Pakistanis celebrate after a ceasefire is reached between Pakistan and India on 10 May 2025 ( AFP via Getty )
The fighting began when India launched airstrikes across the border on what it alleged were training facilities for terrorists. The airstrikes were in retaliation for an attack the previous month in the restive Himalayan territory of Kashmir that had killed about two dozen people, mostly Hindu tourists from the mainland.
Delhi blamed Pakistan for the attack. Islamabad denied the allegation and demanded an independent investigation.
Pakistan claimed that its fighter jets shot down at least six Indian aircraft in the initial stages of the conflict, including the newly acquired French-made Rafale.
India did not confirm how many jets it had lost, but top military officials acknowledged that the air force suffered aircraft losses.
In October, Indian Air Force chief Amar Preet Singh claimed that his side had downed an unspecified number of Pakistan’s Chinese fighters as well as US-built F-16s during the conflict.
open image in gallery India’s prime minister Narendra Modi visits an Air Force base in Punjab following the conflict with Pakistan ( Indian Press Information Bureau )
The US panel’s report noted that Pakistan’s use of Chinese weapons to down Indian aircraft became a “particular selling point for Chinese embassy defence sales efforts despite the fact that only three jets flown by India’s military were reportedly downed and all may not have been Rafales”.
The report cited the French intelligence as saying that China launched a disinformation campaign to undermine Rafale sales and promote its own J-35s, using fake social media accounts to circulate AI-generated and video-game images purporting to show “debris” from aircraft allegedly shot down with Chinese weapons.
“Chinese embassy officials convinced Indonesia to halt a purchase of Rafale jets already in process, furthering China’s inroads into other regional actors’ military procurements,” it added.
China is Pakistan’s main weapons supplier, accounting for 81 per cent of its arms imports over the past five years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a Swedish think tank.
The neighbours now also conduct joint drills. In November and December last year, they launched the three-week Warrior-VIII counterterrorism drills. In February this year, the Chinese navy participated in Pakistan’s multinational AMAN drills.
China hasn’t responded to the US report yet. It has also refrained from commenting on the use of its weapons in the conflict and from directly confirming the Pakistani claims.
After the conflict erupted, Beijing called for “maximum restraint” and urged the warring sides to avoid taking actions that could "further complicate the situation”.
The rivalry between India and Pakistan goes back to their independence from British rule in 1947 and is driven mainly by the unresolved Kashmir dispute. They have fought three wars over the majority Muslim Himalayan region, which they hold in part but claim in full.
India accuses Pakistan of fuelling an armed revolt against Indian rule in Kashmir which is now midway through its third decade. Pakistan denies this.
India is also locked in a Himalayan border dispute with China. The two nations fought a war in 1962 which led to China seizing a part of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. Their soldiers also engaged in a deadly border clash in 2020 that led to a freezing of bilateral relations for years.
scraglor on November 21st, 2025 at 06:42 UTC »
Isn’t this basically what most militaries do? Support other wars to collect data?
Magicalsandwichpress on November 21st, 2025 at 05:59 UTC »
I mean thats how you sell products, lethal or otherwise. Patriots sold like hot cakes after Golf war, HIMARs had a long back log in the first years of Ukraine conflict, Israel's iron dome is doing big numbers after its short conflict with Iran.
sciguy52 on November 21st, 2025 at 04:39 UTC »
As far as weapons sales go this is not too surprising. Russia used to be the relatively low cost provider of OK weapons to any country willing to buy. Russia has stopped delivering weapons since Ukraine. But those countries that wanted to buy those weapons still wanted weapons and can't wait on the Russians to start delivering again in maybe 4-5 years at best. I long expected just this situation was going to have China become the lower cost, roughly as good a Russian weapons, supplier to all those countries, except India of course. Importantly these countries buying these weapons do so due to cost and not because they are the best in the world, but are at least modern enough for their purposes. And I do expect from here on out China will replace Russia as the weapons supplier that will sell to anybody if they got the money. That does not mean their weapons are on par with the west, they are not. But for those countries that bought Russian weapons the concern the be as good as say the U.S. weapons really isn't a factor, just that they wanted more modern weapons for their local needs. Russian SAM's were good enough for most. Good as a Patriot? Not at all. But they do work as SAM's good enough in the rest of the world. The Chinese jets and SAM's are good enough for these countries too. Anyway this is not an endorsement of the quality of Chinese weapons, they are modern but not worlds best, roughly as good as Russian weapons.
But geopolitically this is a big deal. Russia used foreign sales to help fund developing next gen weapons, otherwise Russia would have to take on the entire expense itself just to make these for itself. Very very expensive. I predict they will lose this and their ability to afford developing more advanced weapons, or at a minimum it will extract a big cost from the budget to do so. China will take their place as the low cost supplier, with India being a player too. Since Russia is not delivering weapons and is unlikely to do so for several years, once that change is made it is probably permanent. The countries buying incur a cost in changing weapons system. They have no choice but to incur that cost because they still need weapons now and can't get them for Russia. Once they make the switch to China, they would have to incur that some cost to return to Russian weapons later. From this I think Russia will not be a major arms supplier from here on. Yes they will sell some weapons but for the costly ones that helped fund the R&D they will not be a major player. China will replace them.
India which was a big buyer of Russian weapons will not buy from China, and it is already clear they are turning to western weapon manufacturers. If I recall India will be buying French Rafale fighters at least for carriers, and have already purchased non carrier jets. They are looking at Gripens from Sweden, and even talk of buying F-35's although that seems unlikely, but not totally ruled out. I believe they are going mostly with the French weapons. Of course India has been working on indigenous jets like the Tejas as well. If that goes well maybe they will increasingly buy domestically but clearly they are going for top of the line with European weapons as well. Sort of like a "high low" fighter and fighter bomber fleet, which by the way the U.S. does too. Interestingly India is selling Tejas internationally and Armenia has an order, wtih interest from Brazil, Philippines and Malaysia and others. These are not purely indigenous weapons as the are using GE engine and Israeli components and software. Which might mean India could be another low cost weapons supplier. But China appears to have a first mover advantage over India with their jets in production and India lagging behind. In any event India could be another low cost supplier, perhaps not as big as China, but China may not get a lock on that whole low cost market. And the countries reluctant to buy from China may buy from India, so they may be a player. Not familiar with how good the Tejas latest iterations are though to compare to other systems. But for poorer countries good enough is often fine for their purposes. India is already selling Brahman missiles to the Philippines if I recall. So they are increasingly a player in some areas. All of this is to say that Russian weapons sales have declined due the war which is ongoing and Russia will need to produce weapons to replace their own giving China and India an opportunity to take that market which hurts Russia a lot. Russia also used their weapons sales as influence in the countries dependent which they will lose. Thus Russia is going to have a hard time funding their R&D for their own weapons with these sales and it is very expensive to develop these weapons. Apparently the Russian Su-57 collaboration with India failed to impress, which is not surprising as it really is not a 5th gen fighter, more like 4.5 gen. I believe that collaboration is on hold or stopped if I recall. How much China vs India capture hard to say, but I suspect China will have a larger share, how large hard to tell. All in all another strategic blunder of Russia due to Ukraine war, one that will probably be a permanent change.