An defense minister has revealed that the Ministry of Defence is actively investigating the possible threats associated with Chinese-made vehicles, while personnel have been told to avoid talking about classified information in any cars.
Safety Advice for Defence Personnel
In a recently aired interview on LBC, Luke Pollard commented on reports that Ministry of Defence officials have been instructed not to discuss secret material while travelling in Chinese vehicles.
The minister stated that the MoD is “investigating” Chinese vehicles within its vehicle pools, but noted that security is a issue in all modern cars.
Our department has a collection of tens of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and those vehicles represent a very small number.
But regardless of if you’re driving a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our staff is not to plug Ministry of Defence devices into their vehicle, to avoid having discussions at a secret classification in any vehicle, because of the increasing risks of eavesdropping that exist in every single automobile, to only have those secret conversations in protected areas. That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for everyone concerned about security.
When it was put to him that it would be wise for the ministry to stop using every cars from China, the minister replied: That is exactly what we are looking into at the moment.”
Broader Defence Background
The revelation comes as reports from Norway and Denmark have warned the United Kingdom to the presence of dual-use kill switches in Chinese-made buses, which could enable the Chinese government to disable public transport and cause disruption to transport systems.
Additionally, a Russia spy ship was reportedly shining laser beams at RAF pilots, described as a “highly dangerous” action by government representatives.
The broader defence situation underscores the importance of robust measures and caution in all areas of government operations, including transport use to communication habits.
