A defense minister has revealed that the Ministry of Defence is currently looking into the possible security risks posed by Chinese cars, while personnel have been told to refrain from discussing secret information in any vehicles.
Safety Advice for Defence Staff
During a recent appearance on LBC, a defence minister addressed reports that MoD officials have been told not to talk about secret information while riding in Chinese vehicles.
He stated that the MoD is “looking into” cars from China within its vehicle pools, however stressed that safety is a issue in all modern vehicles.
Our department has a fleet of tens of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and Chinese ones account for a tiny fraction.
However whether you’re traveling in a vehicle from China or a car from another country, our instruction to our people is to avoid connecting Ministry of Defence technology into their car, to avoid having conversations at a classified classification in any vehicle, due to the increasing threats of eavesdropping that exist in all automobile, to only have those confidential conversations in protected areas. This is a prudent and sensible thing for everyone concerned about security.
After it was suggested that it would be prudent for the MoD to stop using all cars from China, the minister replied: That is exactly what we’re investigating at the present time.”
Wider Security Context
The announcement comes as reports from Norway and Denmark have alerted the United Kingdom to the existence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese electric buses, which could allow the Chinese government to disable public transport and bring chaos to transport systems.
Furthermore, a Russia spy ship was reportedly shining laser beams at RAF aircrew, described as a “highly dangerous” act by government representatives.
This broader security environment underscores the significance of strong measures and vigilance in every areas of government operations, including transport use to communication practices.
