Government Official Says MoD Looking at Potential Threat from Chinese Cars, with Personnel Told to Refrain from Secret Talk in Cars.
A defense official has revealed that the MoD is currently investigating the possible threats posed by Chinese-made cars, while staff have been told to avoid discussing classified matters in all cars.
Safety Advice for MoD Personnel
In a recent interview on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed reports that Ministry of Defence officials have been instructed not to talk about secret information while travelling in China-made vehicles.
He said that the ministry is “looking into” cars from China within its vehicle pools, however stressed that security is a concern in all contemporary cars.
We have a collection of tens of thousands of cars in the MoD and those vehicles account for a very small number.
However 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 technology into their vehicle, not to have conversations at a classified classification in any kind of car, due to the growing risks of surveillance that exist in every single automobile, to restrict those confidential conversations in secure locations. That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for anyone worried about safety.
After it was suggested that it would be wise for the MoD to stop using every Chinese vehicles, the minister replied: ‘That’s exactly what we are looking into at the present time.”
Wider Defence Context
The announcement follows claims from Scandinavian countries have warned the UK to the presence of dual-use shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made buses, which could enable China to disable public transport and bring chaos to public transit.
Furthermore, a Russia intelligence vessel was reportedly shining lasers at Royal Air Force pilots, labeled a “highly dangerous” action by government representatives.
The wider defence situation underscores the importance of robust measures and vigilance in all aspects of official activities, including transport use to communication habits.
