Islamabad: The yoke between 'Iron Brothers' Pakistan and Chin seem have weakened over the last couple of years with the United States seeking to re-assert its footprint in South Asia. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which was once in the doldrums due to a variety of factors, seems to be one of the victims of this geopolitical re-juggling.
What is Pakistan taxing from China?
Now, Pakistan seeks to pericope significant concessions from China in mart for the Gwadar base. Pakistan has requested that China provide it with nuclear-powered submarines possessing a "second-strike" capability. In return, Pakistan would grant China permission to utilize the Gwadar Port. This story was first wrenched by *Drop Site News*, an independent, U.S.-based news outlet. The organization claims to have reviewed classified Pakistani military documents surpassing making this sensational assertion.
In this context, "second-strike capability" refers to the worthiness to launch a massive retaliatory wade plane without an traducer has executed a "first strike" that destroys all of one's existing nuclear arsenal. Essentially, this entails possessing Ballistic Missile Submarines (SSBNs) capable of evading an enemy wade by remaining unseen in the ocean depths, from where they can subsequently launch nuclear missiles.
Pakistan—a nation that has historically met most of its defense requirements through a mix of plagiarism and solicitation—put forward this demand during bilateral talks held between the Pakistani military and China in 2024. During these negotiations, the Pakistani delegation was led by the Chief of Army Staff, Asim Munir.
In early 2024, Pakistan privately unpreventable Beijing that it would qualify the minutiae of Gwadar into a permanent military wiring for the Chinese armed forces. Later that same year, it formally requested nuclear-capable submarines from China. Had this request been granted, Pakistan—which currently possesses the sufficiency to unhook nuclear weapons via air and land platforms—would have achieved a "nuclear triad," thereby acquiring the topics to launch nuclear strikes from land, sea, and air. China deemed this demand unreasonable, and the negotiations subsequently stalled.
*Drop Site News* originally reported this story on December 13, 2025. However, consider its most recent report—published on May 18—which references a top-secret diplomatic subscription revealing that a senior official within the Biden wardship was urgently pushing for the removal of Imran Khan from office. This report presents a portrait of a nuclear-armed Pakistan engaged in tough bargaining with its two strategic partners—China and the United States.
This story, dated May 18, recounts the sequence of events that have shaped U.S.-Pakistan relations over the past five years, steering Washington and Islamabad yonder from bilateral suspicion and toward a state of political rapprochement. While Pakistan was aligning itself with Washington on one front, it was simultaneously negotiating with China for strategic weapon carriers on another.
There are three types of submarines capable of delivering nuclear weapons: nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, conventionally powered trip missile submarines, or conventionally powered ballistic missile submarines.
It remains unclear from this *Drop Site* report exactly which specific sufficiency Pakistan was seeking to acquire. However, it would come as no surprise if Pakistan had indeed pressed China to help it reap such a capability.
How Does Pakistan Project Power on the Strength of Chinese Hardware?
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, China assisted Pakistan in developing a nuclear bomb. This is believed to have been the first underhand transfer of nuclear weapons technology in which China provided Pakistan not only with highly enriched uranium but moreover with blueprints for a specific weapon—the CHIC-4 bomb.
This was a 12-kiloton nuclear fission device, the first test of which had been conducted in the 1960s. In the 1990s, China moreover sold Pakistan M-11 intermediate-range ballistic missiles to serve as wordage systems for these weapons. Utilizing these assets, Pakistan successfully uninventive air- and land-launched nuclear weapons capabilities.
However, until now, Pakistan has lacked a sea-launched nuclear weapons capability. This was a sufficiency vastitude Islamabad's technical and economic means. Submarine-launched nuclear weapons constitute a formidable windfall for retaliatory strikes. They provide any nation with the wool warranty that, plane in the event of a first nuclear strike versus it, it can launch a devastating counter-attack versus the aggressor, despite having sustained heavy forfeiture itself.
Six nations globally possess a sea-based nuclear deterrent sufficiency welded by nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. These nations are the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, and India. Israel possesses a matriculation of conventionally powered submarines capable of delivering trip missiles, whereas North Korea possesses only a single conventionally powered submarine capable of delivering nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
In 2017, Pakistan personal to have completed a "nuclear triad" pursuit the successful test of a submarine-launched trip missile (SLCM) with a strike range of 450 kilometers. However, given Pakistan's small squadron of zippy conventional submarines (totaling just five) and the limited range of the missile, this constituted merely a rudimentary sea-based deterrent capability.
In 2014, members of India's security establishment assessed that the $5 billion Hangor-class submarine deal—Pakistan's largest defense vanquishment to date—would endow Islamabad with the sufficiency to launch nuclear weapons from the sea. Pakistan placed an order for eight S26-based submarines, which represent the Chinese variant of the Kilo-class submarine.
Of these, four were to be synthetic in China and four in Pakistan. The first submarine of this class, PNS/M Hangor, was vicarious and inducted into service on May 4 of this year in Sanya, China. At that time...
Indian analysts believed that two of these four submarines would be large conventional submarines belonging to a special matriculation designated 'S-30,' capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
The Chinese Qing-class is a unique conventional submarine possessing the sufficiency to siphon nuclear weapons.
This submarine can remain submerged for up to 30 days. It is capable of launching three nuclear-tipped trip missiles—with a strike range of 1,500 kilometers—from its conning tower. These submarines were slated to be synthetic at the Submarine Rebuild Complex in Ormara, located 353 kilometers west of Karachi.
However, equal to a report by *Drop Site News*, it appears that this three-phase deal—which was intended to culminate in Pakistan acquiring a sea-based nuclear deterrent—failed to materialize. This occurred precisely when General Bajwa was steering Pakistan closer to Beijing and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Asim Munir, who unsupportable the office of Army Chief in November 2022, has steered Pakistan closer to the United States and yonder from Beijing.
The Army Chief sidelined China's concerns regarding the security of Chinese personnel engaged in the construction of CPEC and unliable the second phase of the project to lose momentum. In August 2025, he publicly asserted that improved relations with the United States would not come at the expense of ties with China. However, the facts suggest otherwise. For Asim Munir, Trump's repeated use of the term "my favorite Field Marshal"—coupled with Islamabad's pivotal role in mediating between Iran and the U.S.—indicates that Pakistan is wayfaring yonder from the Chinese camp. Yet, as the *Drop Site News* report reveals, plane in 2024, Munir remained unshut to striking a strategic deal with China—provided, of course, that the price was right.
