A defense official has confirmed that the Ministry of Defence is actively looking into the potential security risks associated with Chinese vehicles, and personnel have been told to refrain from talking about classified information in any vehicles.
Safety Advice for MoD Personnel
In a recent appearance on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed reports that MoD staff have been instructed not to talk about secret material while riding in China-made vehicles.
The minister explained that the ministry is “looking into” Chinese vehicles within its vehicle pools, however stressed that safety is a issue in all modern cars.
Our department has 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 vehicle from China or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our staff is to avoid connecting MoD devices into their vehicle, not to have conversations at a classified level in any kind of car, due to the increasing risks of eavesdropping that are present in all vehicle, to only have those secret talks in secure locations. That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for everyone concerned about security.
After it was suggested that it would be wise for the ministry to cease using every cars from China, the minister replied: That is exactly what we are looking into at the moment.”
Wider Defence Context
This announcement follows reports from Norway and Denmark have alerted the United Kingdom to the presence of dual-use shutdown mechanisms in Chinese buses, which could enable China to switch off buses and bring chaos to transport systems.
Furthermore, a Russia spy ship has been shining lasers at Royal Air Force pilots, described as a “extremely risky” action by government representatives.
The wider security situation highlights the significance of strong protocols and caution in all aspects of government activities, including vehicle use to discussions habits.
