An defense official has stated that the Ministry of Defence is actively investigating the potential threats posed by Chinese cars, while staff have been advised to refrain from talking about secret information in all cars.
Safety Guidance for MoD Personnel
In a recent appearance on LBC, a defence minister addressed reports that MoD officials have been instructed not to talk about secret material while travelling in China-made vehicles.
The minister stated that the MoD is “investigating” cars from China within its vehicle pools, however stressed that safety is a concern in all contemporary cars.
Our department has a collection of tens of thousands of cars in the MoD and those vehicles account for a very small number.
But regardless of if you’re driving a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, what we’ve asked our people is not to plug Ministry of Defence technology into their vehicle, not to have discussions at a secret classification in any kind of car, due to the growing risks of eavesdropping that exist in every single vehicle, to restrict those confidential conversations in secure locations. This is a prudent and sensible thing for everyone concerned about safety.
When it was put to him that it would be wise for the MoD to stop using all cars from China, Pollard responded: ‘That’s exactly what we are looking into at the moment.”
Broader Defence Background
This announcement follows claims from Norway and Denmark have alerted the United Kingdom to the presence of dual-use shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made buses, which could enable the Chinese government to disable public transport and cause chaos to public transit.
Furthermore, a Russian spy ship was reportedly shining laser beams at Royal Air Force aircrew, described as a “extremely risky” act by government representatives.
This wider defence environment highlights the importance of robust protocols and caution in every aspects of government activities, including transport usage to communication practices.
