An defence official has confirmed that the Ministry of Defence is actively examining the possible security risks posed by Chinese-made cars, while personnel have been told to avoid discussing secret information in any cars.
Security Advice for Defence Personnel
In a recently aired interview on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed reports that MoD officials have been told not to talk about secret material while travelling in China-made cars.
He stated that the ministry is “looking into” cars from China within its vehicle pools, however stressed that safety is a issue in all contemporary vehicles.
We have a collection of tens of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence 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 vehicle, to avoid having conversations at a secret classification in any kind of vehicle, due to the growing threats of eavesdropping that are present in all vehicle, to only have those secret talks in secure locations. This is a prudent and sensible thing for anyone worried about security.
When it was suggested that it would be prudent for the ministry to stop using all cars from China, Pollard replied: That is exactly what we are looking into at the moment.”
Wider Security Background
The revelation follows reports from Norway and Denmark have alerted the UK to the presence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made electric buses, which could enable China to disable buses and bring chaos to transport systems.
Additionally, a Russia spy ship was reportedly shining laser beams at RAF aircrew, labeled a “highly dangerous” action by defence officials.
This wider security environment highlights the importance of strong protocols and caution in all areas of government activities, including transport usage to discussions practices.
