A defense official has stated that the MoD is actively looking into the possible threats associated with Chinese-made cars, while staff have been told to refrain from discussing classified matters in all cars.
Safety Advice for Defence Personnel
During a recent interview on LBC, a defence minister addressed claims that MoD staff have been instructed not to discuss classified material while travelling in Chinese vehicles.
He said that the ministry is “examining” Chinese vehicles within its vehicle pools, however noted that safety is a issue in all modern cars.
We have a collection of thousands of vehicles in the MoD and Chinese ones represent a tiny fraction.
However regardless of if you’re driving a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our people is not to plug MoD technology into their car, to avoid having conversations at a secret classification in any vehicle, because of the increasing threats of eavesdropping that exist in all vehicle, to only have those confidential conversations in protected areas. This is a prudent and reasonable thing for everyone concerned about security.
After it was put to him that it would be prudent for the MoD to cease using all cars from China, the minister responded: That is precisely what we are looking into at the present time.”
Wider Defence Context
The announcement follows claims from Scandinavian countries have alerted the UK to the existence of multi-purpose kill switches in Chinese-made buses, which could enable China to disable public transport and bring disruption to transport systems.
Additionally, a Russian spy ship was reportedly shining laser beams at RAF pilots, described as a “highly dangerous” action by defence officials.
This wider defence situation highlights the significance of strong measures and vigilance in every aspects of government activities, including vehicle use to communication practices.
