A defense minister has confirmed that the Ministry of Defence is currently investigating the possible security risks associated with Chinese-made vehicles, and personnel have been told to refrain from talking about classified information in any cars.
Safety Advice for MoD Staff
In a recent interview on a radio station, Luke Pollard addressed claims that MoD officials have been instructed not to talk about secret material while travelling in Chinese cars.
He explained that the MoD is “looking into” cars from China within its vehicle pools, but noted that safety 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 non-Chinese car, what we’ve asked our people is not to plug Ministry of Defence devices into their vehicle, not to have discussions at a classified level in any vehicle, because of the increasing risks of surveillance that are present in all automobile, to only have those secret conversations in secure locations. That’s a prudent and sensible thing for anyone worried about security.
After it was suggested that it would be wise for the ministry to cease using every Chinese vehicles, Pollard replied: ‘That’s exactly what we are looking into at the present time.”
Broader Defence Background
This revelation follows claims from Norway and Denmark have warned the UK to the existence of multi-purpose kill switches in Chinese-made buses, which could allow China to disable buses and bring chaos to public transit.
Additionally, a Russian spy ship was reportedly shining lasers at Royal Air Force pilots, labeled a “highly dangerous” action by defence officials.
This broader defence environment underscores the significance of strong protocols and vigilance in every areas of official activities, including transport use to communication practices.
