China on Monday (July 7) said that it has close ties with Pakistan and it does cooperate with the country on defence, but chose not to respond to the direct question of its role and help to Islamabad during Operation Sindoor in May this year. Addressing a media briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, “China and Pakistan are close neighbours, enjoying traditional friendship. Defence and security cooperation is part of the normal cooperation between the two countries and does not target any third party.” The Chinese response came after Indian Army’s Deputy Chief Lt Gen Rahul R Singh suggested that Beijing provided active military support to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor using the conflict as a “live lab” to test various weapon systems. Notably, Pakitan Army chief Asim Munir has also responded on the matter. China also highlighted its relationship with India, stating that it is in “critical moment of improvement and development.”
What Indian Army’s Deputy Chief Lt Gen Rahul Singh said?
Addressing the ‘New Age Military Technologies’ conference organised by FICCI last week, Gen. Singh highlighted the scale of Chinese influence on Pakistan’s defence preparedness, pointing out that as much as 81 per cent of Islamabad’s military hardware comes from China. He also said that while Pakistan was the “front face”, China extended all possible support to its all-weather ally, Turkiye was also playing a major role by supplying military hardware to Islamabad, adding that India was actually dealing with at least three adversaries during the May 7-10 conflict.
“If you are to look at statistics, in the last five years, 81% of the military hardware that Pakistan is getting is all Chinese…China is able to test its weapons against other weapons, so it’s like a live lab available to them,” the top Army general said. “When DGMO-level talks were going on, Pakistan was actually mentioning that we know your important vector is primed, and it is ready for action. I would request you to pull it back. So, they were getting live inputs… from China,” he added.
What Asim Munir said on the matter?
Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir on Monday (July 7, 2025) rejected assertions that Islamabad received external support during the conflict with India, saying such assertions are “factually incorrect”. In an address to the graduating officers at the National Defence University Islamabad, Munir said, “Insinuations regarding external support in Pakistan’s successful Operation Bunyanum Marsoos are irresponsible and factually incorrect and reflect a chronic reluctance to acknowledge indigenous capability and institutional resilience developed over decades of strategic prudence,” he said. “Naming other states as participants in the purely bilateral military conflagration is also a shoddy attempt at playing camp politics…,” he added.