Minister States Ministry of Defence Examining Potential Threat from Chinese Cars, as Staff Told to Avoid Secret Talk in Vehicles.
A defence official has stated that the Ministry of Defence is currently investigating the possible security risks associated with Chinese vehicles, while personnel have been instructed to avoid talking about classified information in any cars.
Safety Advice for MoD Personnel
During a recently aired interview on LBC, a defence minister addressed reports that Ministry of Defence officials have been told not to discuss secret information while travelling in China-made vehicles.
He explained that the ministry is “examining” cars from China within its fleets, but emphasised that safety is a issue in every modern vehicles.
Our department has a collection of thousands of vehicles in the Ministry of Defence and those vehicles represent a tiny fraction.
But regardless of if you’re driving a vehicle from China or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our staff is not to plug MoD devices into their vehicle, not to have discussions at a classified level in any kind of car, because of the increasing threats of eavesdropping that are present in all automobile, to restrict those confidential conversations in protected areas. This is a prudent and sensible thing for anyone concerned about security.
When it was put to him that it would be wise for the MoD to stop using every Chinese vehicles, the minister responded: ‘That’s precisely what we are looking into at the present time.”
Wider Defence Context
The revelation follows reports from Scandinavian countries have alerted the United Kingdom to the presence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made buses, which could enable the Chinese government to switch off buses and bring disruption to public transit.
Additionally, a Russia spy ship was reportedly directing lasers at Royal Air Force pilots, described as a “highly dangerous” action by defence officials.
This broader defence environment highlights the importance of robust measures and vigilance in all areas of government activities, including vehicle use to discussions habits.
