An defense minister has revealed that the Ministry of Defence is actively looking into the potential threats posed by Chinese cars, while personnel have been advised to refrain from talking about classified information in all vehicles.
Security Advice for Defence Personnel
During a recently aired interview on a radio station, Luke Pollard commented on claims that MoD staff have been told not to discuss classified material while riding in Chinese cars.
He said that the ministry is “examining” Chinese vehicles within its fleets, but stressed that security is a issue in every modern cars.
We have a fleet of tens of thousands of vehicles in the MoD and Chinese ones account for a tiny fraction.
However regardless of if you’re traveling in a Chinese car or a car from another country, our instruction to our people is not to plug MoD technology into their vehicle, to avoid having conversations at a secret level in any vehicle, due to the growing threats of eavesdropping that are present in all automobile, to restrict those confidential talks in secure locations. This is a wise and sensible thing for anyone concerned about security.
When it was put to him that it would be wise for the MoD to cease using every cars from China, Pollard responded: ‘That’s exactly what we are looking into at the present time.”
Broader Defence Context
This announcement follows reports from Scandinavian countries have alerted the United Kingdom to the existence of multi-purpose kill switches in Chinese-made electric buses, which could enable the Chinese government to disable public transport and cause disruption to public transit.
Additionally, a Russia intelligence vessel was reportedly shining laser beams at Royal Air Force aircrew, described as a “highly dangerous” act by government representatives.
This wider security situation underscores the importance of robust protocols and vigilance in all aspects of government activities, including transport use to discussions habits.
