An defense official has revealed that the MoD is currently examining the possible security risks posed by Chinese-made vehicles, while staff have been advised to avoid discussing secret information in all vehicles.
Safety Guidance for MoD Staff
During a recent interview on LBC, a defence minister addressed reports that MoD officials have been instructed not to talk about secret information while travelling in China-made vehicles.
The minister explained that the MoD is “examining” Chinese vehicles within its fleets, but noted that security is a issue in all contemporary cars.
Our department has a collection of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and Chinese ones account for a tiny fraction.
But regardless of if you’re driving a vehicle from China or a car from another country, what we’ve asked our people is not to plug Ministry of Defence technology into their vehicle, not to have conversations at a secret level in any vehicle, due to the growing threats of surveillance that exist in all automobile, to restrict those secret talks in secure locations. That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for anyone worried about safety.
After it was suggested that it would be prudent for the ministry to cease using all Chinese vehicles, Pollard responded: ‘That’s precisely what we’re investigating at the moment.”
Wider Security Context
The announcement comes as reports from Norway and Denmark have alerted the UK to the existence of dual-use kill switches in Chinese-made electric buses, which could enable China to disable public transport and bring chaos to transport systems.
Additionally, a Russian spy ship was reportedly shining lasers at Royal Air Force pilots, described as a “extremely risky” action by defence officials.
The wider defence environment underscores the importance of robust protocols and caution in every aspects of official operations, including transport usage to discussions practices.
