A defense official has revealed that the Ministry of Defence is actively looking into the potential security risks posed by Chinese vehicles, while personnel have been instructed to avoid talking about secret information in all cars.
Safety Advice for MoD Personnel
In a recently aired interview on a radio station, a defence minister commented on claims that Ministry of Defence officials have been told not to discuss secret information while travelling in Chinese vehicles.
The minister stated that the MoD is “looking into” cars from China within its fleets, but emphasised that safety is a issue in every modern vehicles.
We have a collection of tens of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and those vehicles represent a tiny fraction.
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 MoD devices into their vehicle, to avoid having conversations at a classified level in any vehicle, due to the increasing threats of eavesdropping that are present in all automobile, to only have those secret talks in protected areas. That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for anyone worried about safety.
When it was put to him that it would be wise for the MoD to stop using all Chinese vehicles, the minister responded: ‘That’s precisely what we are looking into at the present time.”
Wider Security Context
This announcement follows claims from Scandinavian countries have alerted the UK to the existence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese buses, which could enable China to switch off buses and bring chaos to public transit.
Additionally, a Russia intelligence vessel has been directing laser beams at Royal Air Force aircrew, labeled a “extremely risky” action by defence officials.
The wider defence environment underscores the importance of strong protocols and vigilance in every areas of government operations, from vehicle usage to discussions habits.
