A defense official has revealed that the Ministry of Defence is currently looking into the potential threats posed by Chinese cars, and personnel have been told to refrain from talking about classified information in any vehicles.
Security Advice for MoD Staff
During a recent interview on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed reports that Ministry of Defence staff have been instructed not to discuss secret material while riding in China-made cars.
The minister stated that the MoD is “investigating” Chinese vehicles within its vehicle pools, however noted that safety is a concern in all modern vehicles.
Our department has a collection of tens of thousands of cars in the MoD and Chinese ones represent a tiny fraction.
However regardless of if you’re driving a Chinese car or a car from another country, our instruction to our people is to avoid connecting Ministry of Defence devices into their vehicle, to avoid having conversations at a secret classification in any kind of car, due to the growing threats of eavesdropping that exist in every single automobile, to restrict those confidential conversations in protected areas. This is a wise and reasonable thing for anyone concerned about safety.
After it was suggested that it would be wise for the MoD to stop using all cars from China, the minister responded: ‘That’s exactly what we’re investigating at the present time.”
Wider Defence Context
This revelation comes as reports from Norway and Denmark have warned the UK to the existence of multi-purpose kill switches in Chinese-made electric buses, which could allow the Chinese government to disable buses and cause chaos to public transit.
Furthermore, a Russian intelligence vessel has been shining lasers at Royal Air Force aircrew, described as a “highly dangerous” act by defence officials.
The wider defence situation highlights the importance of robust measures and caution in all aspects of official operations, from transport usage to communication habits.
