A defence minister has revealed that the Ministry of Defence is currently looking into the potential security risks associated with Chinese vehicles, while personnel have been advised to avoid discussing classified matters in any cars.
Security Advice for MoD Personnel
In a recent interview on LBC, Luke Pollard commented on claims that MoD officials have been instructed not to talk about secret material while riding in Chinese vehicles.
He said that the MoD is “examining” cars from China within its fleets, but noted that safety is a concern in all contemporary cars.
We have a collection of tens of thousands of cars in the MoD and those vehicles account for a tiny fraction.
However regardless of if you’re driving a Chinese car or a car from another country, our instruction to our staff is not to plug Ministry of Defence technology into their car, to avoid having conversations at a secret level in any vehicle, due to the growing threats of surveillance that are present in all automobile, to only have those confidential conversations in secure locations. This is a prudent and reasonable thing for everyone concerned about security.
When it was put to him that it would be prudent for the MoD to cease using all Chinese vehicles, the minister responded: ‘That’s precisely what we are looking into at the present time.”
Wider Defence Background
This revelation comes as reports from Scandinavian countries have warned the United Kingdom to the presence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made buses, which could enable the Chinese government to switch off public transport and bring chaos to public transit.
Additionally, a Russia spy ship has been directing laser beams at RAF aircrew, described as a “extremely risky” act by government representatives.
This wider defence situation underscores the importance of robust measures and vigilance in every areas of official activities, including transport use to communication practices.
