Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, has firmly rejected Indian claims that Islamabad received real-time support from China during the May 2025 conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. Munir dismissed the insinuations as "factually incorrect" and a "shoddy attempt" to deflect from India's battlefield failures. These remarks were made during his address to graduating officers at the National Defense University in Islamabad.
The Indian Army's Deputy Chief, Lt. Gen. Rahul Singh, alleged at a defense forum in New Delhi that China provided Pakistan with "live inputs" about key Indian military positions during the May fighting, though he did not detail the evidence supporting this claim. The conflict, which involved the use of missiles, drones, and artillery fire, marked the worst fighting between the two countries in decades. It was triggered by an April 2025 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir, which New Delhi blamed on Islamabad. Pakistan has denied involvement in the attack.
Munir stated that India's failure to achieve its stated goals during the conflict highlighted shortcomings in planning and capability. He described the allegations of Chinese assistance as reflecting "a chronic reluctance to acknowledge indigenous capability and institutional resilience developed over decades of strategic prudence". He added that "Naming other states as participants in the purely bilateral military conflagration is also a shoddy attempt at playing camp politics and desperately trying that India remains the beneficiary of larger geopolitical contestation as the so-called net security provider in a region which is getting increasingly weary of its hegemonic and extremist Hindutva ideology".
Pakistani officials have previously dismissed allegations of receiving active support from China in the conflict. Defense Minister Khawaja Asif also denied any direct Chinese military involvement during the May conflict in an interview last month. Munir referred to Pakistan's military response as "Operation Bunyan Al Marsoos," stating that insinuations regarding external support in it are irresponsible and factually incorrect.
While Beijing has yet to formally respond, indications suggest a downplaying of the issue, consistent with its general approach to avoid direct involvement in the India-Pakistan dynamic. Some reports suggest that China may have provided satellite imagery or other real-time intelligence, which India's chief of defense staff noted was commercially available and could have been procured from China or elsewhere.
Munir also issued a stern warning to India, stating that any attempts to target Pakistan's population centers, military bases, economic hubs, and ports would "instantly invoke a deeply hurting and more than reciprocal response". Tensions between the two countries remain high following the recent conflict.
