An defence minister has stated that the Ministry of Defence is actively examining the potential threats associated with Chinese-made vehicles, and staff have been instructed to refrain from discussing classified information in any cars.
Safety Advice for Defence Personnel
During a recent appearance on LBC, Luke Pollard commented on reports that Ministry of Defence staff have been instructed not to talk about secret material while riding in China-made vehicles.
The minister explained that the ministry is “investigating” cars from China within its fleets, but noted that security is a issue in all modern cars.
Our department has a fleet of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and Chinese ones account for a very small number.
However regardless of if you’re driving a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, what we’ve asked our staff is not to plug MoD devices into their vehicle, not to have conversations at a classified level in any vehicle, due to the growing risks of eavesdropping that exist in all automobile, to restrict those confidential conversations in protected areas. That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for anyone worried about safety.
When it was suggested that it would be wise for the ministry to stop using every cars from China, Pollard replied: That is precisely what we are looking into at the present time.”
Wider Defence Context
The revelation comes as reports from Norway and Denmark have alerted the United Kingdom to the existence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made buses, which could allow China to disable buses and cause chaos to transport systems.
Additionally, a Russia spy ship was reportedly shining lasers at Royal Air Force pilots, labeled a “extremely risky” action by government representatives.
The wider security environment underscores the significance of robust measures and caution in every aspects of government operations, from transport use to communication practices.
