A defence minister has stated that the Ministry of Defence is currently investigating the potential security risks posed by Chinese vehicles, and personnel have been instructed to avoid talking about secret matters in all cars.
Safety Advice for Defence Staff
During a recent appearance on LBC, a defence minister commented on reports that Ministry of Defence staff have been instructed not to discuss secret material while travelling in China-made cars.
He stated that the ministry is “investigating” Chinese vehicles within its vehicle pools, but noted that security is a concern in every contemporary vehicles.
Our department has a collection of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and Chinese ones represent a tiny fraction.
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 technology into their car, to avoid having conversations at a secret level in any kind of vehicle, because of the growing threats of eavesdropping that exist in every single vehicle, to restrict those secret talks in protected areas. That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for anyone worried about safety.
When it was suggested that it would be prudent for the ministry to cease using every cars from China, Pollard responded: ‘That’s exactly what we’re investigating at the moment.”
Wider Defence Background
This announcement comes as reports from Norway and Denmark have warned the UK to the presence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made buses, which could allow China to disable public transport and bring disruption to public transit.
Additionally, a Russian spy ship has been shining laser beams at Royal Air Force pilots, labeled a “highly dangerous” action by government representatives.
The wider security environment highlights the importance of robust measures and vigilance in every aspects of government operations, including vehicle usage to discussions habits.
