A defense minister has confirmed that the Ministry of Defence is actively examining the potential threats associated with Chinese-made cars, and personnel have been advised to refrain from talking about classified information in all vehicles.
Security Advice for MoD Staff
During a recently aired interview on LBC, a defence minister commented on reports that MoD officials have been told not to talk about classified information while travelling in China-made vehicles.
He said that the ministry is “investigating” Chinese vehicles within its vehicle pools, but stressed that safety is a concern in every modern cars.
Our department has a collection of tens of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and those vehicles represent 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 not to plug MoD devices into their vehicle, to avoid having discussions at a classified level in any kind of car, because of the increasing threats of surveillance that are present in all automobile, to only have those confidential talks in secure locations. That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for everyone concerned about security.
After it was put to him that it would be wise for the MoD to stop using all cars from China, the minister replied: That is precisely what we are looking into at the present time.”
Wider Defence Background
This announcement follows reports from Scandinavian countries have alerted the UK to the existence of dual-use shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made buses, which could enable China to disable buses and bring chaos to transport systems.
Furthermore, a Russia spy ship has been directing lasers at RAF pilots, described as a “extremely risky” act by defence officials.
The broader security situation underscores the importance of robust measures and vigilance in every areas of government operations, including transport usage to communication practices.
