A defense minister has confirmed that the Ministry of Defence is currently looking into the possible security risks associated with Chinese-made cars, while personnel have been advised to refrain from discussing secret information in all vehicles.
Safety Advice for MoD Personnel
In a recently aired interview on a radio station, Luke Pollard commented on claims that Ministry of Defence staff have been instructed not to discuss classified material while travelling in China-made cars.
He said that the MoD is “looking into” cars from China within its vehicle pools, but emphasised that safety is a issue in all contemporary vehicles.
We have a collection of tens of thousands of cars in the MoD and those vehicles represent a tiny fraction.
However whether you’re driving a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, what we’ve asked our staff is to avoid connecting MoD devices into their car, to avoid having conversations at a secret classification in any kind of car, due to the increasing threats of surveillance that exist in every single vehicle, to only have those secret conversations in protected areas. That’s a wise and reasonable thing for everyone concerned about security.
When it was suggested that it would be prudent for the ministry to stop using every cars from China, Pollard responded: That is exactly what we’re investigating at the present time.”
Broader Security Context
This revelation follows reports from Norway and Denmark have alerted the UK to the existence of multi-purpose kill switches in Chinese-made buses, which could enable the Chinese government to disable public transport and bring chaos to public transit.
Additionally, a Russian spy ship was reportedly directing lasers at Royal Air Force pilots, labeled a “highly dangerous” action by defence officials.
The wider defence environment underscores the importance of robust measures and vigilance in all aspects of government operations, from vehicle usage to discussions practices.
