An defense official has revealed that the Ministry of Defence is currently looking into the possible threats posed by Chinese-made vehicles, while personnel have been advised to avoid discussing classified information in any vehicles.
Safety Advice for MoD Personnel
During a recent interview on LBC, Luke Pollard commented on reports that Ministry of Defence staff have been instructed not to discuss secret information while riding in Chinese vehicles.
He said that the MoD is “looking into” cars from China within its fleets, but emphasised that safety is a concern in every contemporary vehicles.
We have a collection of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and those vehicles represent a tiny fraction.
But regardless of if you’re driving a Chinese car or a car from another country, our instruction to our people is to avoid connecting Ministry of Defence devices into their vehicle, to avoid having conversations at a secret level in any car, due to the increasing threats of surveillance that exist in every single automobile, to restrict those secret conversations in protected areas. That’s a wise and reasonable thing for anyone concerned about security.
When it was put to him that it would be wise for the ministry to stop using all cars from China, the minister replied: That is exactly what we are looking into at the moment.”
Broader Security Context
This revelation follows claims from Norway and Denmark have alerted the UK to the presence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made electric buses, which could allow China to disable buses and bring disruption to public transit.
Furthermore, a Russia intelligence vessel has been shining laser beams at Royal Air Force pilots, described as a “extremely risky” act by government representatives.
This wider security environment highlights the significance of strong measures and caution in every aspects of official operations, including transport usage to discussions habits.
