A defense official has stated that the Ministry of Defence is actively examining the potential security risks posed by Chinese-made cars, and personnel have been instructed to refrain from talking about classified matters in any cars.
Safety Advice for MoD Personnel
In a recently aired interview on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed claims that Ministry of Defence staff have been instructed not to discuss classified information while riding in China-made cars.
He explained that the MoD is “looking into” cars from China within its fleets, however emphasised that safety is a concern in every modern vehicles.
We have a collection of thousands of cars in the MoD and those vehicles represent a very small number.
However regardless of if you’re traveling in a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our people is not to plug MoD devices into their vehicle, to avoid having conversations at a secret classification in any kind of vehicle, due to the increasing risks of eavesdropping that exist in all automobile, to only have those confidential talks in protected areas. This is a wise and sensible thing for everyone concerned about security.
After it was suggested that it would be wise for the ministry to cease using all Chinese vehicles, the minister replied: ‘That’s exactly what we are looking into at the moment.”
Wider Security Context
This announcement follows claims from Norway and Denmark have alerted the United Kingdom to the existence of dual-use kill switches in Chinese buses, which could enable the Chinese government to disable public transport and bring chaos to public transit.
Furthermore, a Russian intelligence vessel was reportedly directing laser beams at RAF aircrew, labeled a “highly dangerous” act by defence officials.
This wider security environment underscores the importance of strong protocols and vigilance in every areas of official operations, including transport usage to discussions practices.
