An defence official has confirmed that the Ministry of Defence is currently examining the possible threats posed by Chinese-made vehicles, while personnel have been instructed to refrain from talking about secret information in all cars.
Safety Guidance for MoD Personnel
During a recent interview on a radio station, a defence minister commented on claims that Ministry of Defence officials have been told not to talk about classified information while riding in Chinese vehicles.
The minister stated that the MoD is “investigating” cars from China within its vehicle pools, however noted that safety is a concern in all contemporary vehicles.
Our department has a collection of tens of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and those vehicles account for a tiny fraction.
However regardless of if you’re traveling in a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, 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 risks of surveillance that are present in every single automobile, to only have those confidential conversations in secure locations. That’s a wise and sensible thing for anyone worried about security.
When it was suggested that it would be wise for the ministry to stop using all cars from China, Pollard replied: ‘That’s exactly what we are looking into at the moment.”
Broader Security Context
The revelation follows reports from Scandinavian countries have alerted the United Kingdom to the presence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made buses, which could enable the Chinese government to disable buses and bring chaos to transport systems.
Furthermore, a Russian spy ship has been shining laser beams at RAF aircrew, labeled a “extremely risky” action by government representatives.
This wider security situation underscores the importance of strong measures and vigilance in every areas of government activities, from transport use to discussions habits.
