A defence official has stated that the MoD is currently examining the potential security risks posed by Chinese cars, and personnel have been told to avoid talking about classified information in all cars.
Safety Guidance for Defence Staff
During a recently aired interview on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed claims that Ministry of Defence officials have been instructed not to talk about secret information while riding in China-made vehicles.
The minister stated that the ministry is “examining” cars from China within its vehicle pools, but noted that security is a issue in every modern cars.
Our department has a collection of tens of thousands of vehicles in the Ministry of Defence and Chinese ones represent a tiny fraction.
However regardless of if you’re driving a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our staff is not to plug MoD devices into their vehicle, not to have discussions at a secret classification in any kind of vehicle, because of the increasing threats of eavesdropping that are present in every single vehicle, to restrict those confidential conversations in secure locations. That’s a wise and sensible thing for everyone concerned about safety.
After it was suggested that it would be wise for the ministry to stop using all Chinese vehicles, Pollard responded: ‘That’s exactly what we’re investigating at the moment.”
Wider Defence Background
The announcement follows claims from Scandinavian countries have alerted the United Kingdom to the existence of multi-purpose kill switches in Chinese-made buses, which could enable the Chinese government to disable public transport and bring disruption to transport systems.
Furthermore, a Russian spy ship was reportedly directing lasers at RAF pilots, labeled a “extremely risky” act by defence officials.
This broader defence situation highlights the importance of robust measures and caution in all areas of official activities, from transport usage to discussions practices.
