An defense minister has stated that the Ministry of Defence is currently examining the possible threats posed by Chinese-made vehicles, and staff have been told to refrain from discussing classified information in any vehicles.
Safety Guidance for Defence Staff
In a recent appearance on a radio station, Luke Pollard addressed claims that Ministry of Defence officials have been told not to discuss secret material while riding in Chinese cars.
He stated that the ministry is “investigating” Chinese vehicles within its fleets, but emphasised that safety is a issue in every contemporary vehicles.
We have a collection of tens of thousands of vehicles in the MoD and those vehicles account for a tiny fraction.
However regardless of if you’re traveling in a vehicle from China or a car from another country, our instruction to our people is not to plug Ministry of Defence technology into their vehicle, to avoid having conversations at a secret level in any kind of vehicle, because of the increasing threats of eavesdropping that exist in every single vehicle, to only have those secret conversations in protected areas. 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 ministry to stop using every cars from China, the minister replied: ‘That’s exactly what we’re investigating at the present time.”
Broader Defence Context
The revelation follows reports from Scandinavian countries have alerted the United Kingdom to the existence of dual-use kill switches in Chinese-made electric buses, which could enable the Chinese government to disable buses and bring disruption to transport systems.
Furthermore, a Russian spy ship has been shining lasers at RAF pilots, described as a “extremely risky” act by defence officials.
This wider defence situation underscores the importance of strong protocols and vigilance in every aspects of government activities, including transport use to discussions habits.
