A defense minister has stated that the Ministry of Defence is actively looking into the potential threats associated with Chinese-made cars, while staff have been told to refrain from talking about classified information in any cars.
Safety Guidance for Defence Personnel
In a recent interview on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed claims that MoD staff have been instructed not to discuss classified material while travelling in Chinese vehicles.
He said that the ministry is “investigating” cars from China within its fleets, but emphasised that safety is a concern in all contemporary vehicles.
We have a fleet of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and Chinese ones account for a very small number.
However regardless of if you’re driving a Chinese car or a car from another country, our instruction to our staff is to avoid connecting MoD devices into their vehicle, to avoid having conversations at a secret level in any vehicle, because of the increasing threats of surveillance that are present in all automobile, to restrict those confidential talks in secure locations. That’s a wise and sensible thing for anyone concerned about security.
When it was suggested that it would be prudent for the MoD to cease using every cars from China, the minister replied: ‘That’s exactly what we’re investigating at the moment.”
Broader Defence Background
This announcement follows claims from Scandinavian countries have alerted the UK to the presence of dual-use shutdown mechanisms in Chinese electric buses, which could enable the Chinese government to disable public transport and bring disruption to transport systems.
Furthermore, a Russian spy ship has been shining laser beams at RAF aircrew, described as a “extremely risky” act by government representatives.
This wider defence environment underscores the significance of strong protocols and caution in every areas of government operations, from transport usage to discussions practices.
