A defense minister has stated that the Ministry of Defence is currently investigating the potential threats posed by Chinese-made vehicles, and staff have been advised to avoid discussing secret information in all vehicles.
Safety Guidance for Defence Staff
In a recent appearance on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed reports that Ministry of Defence officials have been instructed not to talk about classified material while travelling in China-made vehicles.
He said that the MoD is “looking into” cars from China within its vehicle pools, but noted that security is a concern in every modern vehicles.
We have a collection 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, what we’ve asked our staff is to avoid connecting MoD devices into their car, not to have conversations at a secret classification in any car, due to the increasing risks of eavesdropping that exist in all vehicle, to restrict those secret talks in protected areas. That’s a wise and reasonable thing for everyone worried about safety.
After it was put to him that it would be wise for the MoD to stop using all cars from China, the minister replied: ‘That’s precisely what we are looking into at the present time.”
Wider Defence Context
The announcement comes as reports from Norway and Denmark have alerted the UK to the existence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made buses, which could enable the Chinese government to disable public transport and bring chaos to transport systems.
Additionally, a Russia spy ship has been shining laser beams at Royal Air Force aircrew, labeled a “highly dangerous” act by defence officials.
The wider defence environment underscores the significance of robust measures and vigilance in all aspects of official activities, including vehicle use to discussions habits.
