An defense minister has revealed that the MoD is actively examining the potential threats posed by Chinese-made vehicles, and personnel have been told to avoid discussing secret information in any vehicles.
Safety Advice for Defence Staff
During a recently aired interview on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed reports that MoD officials have been told not to talk about secret information while riding in Chinese vehicles.
The minister explained that the ministry is “looking into” Chinese vehicles within its fleets, however emphasised that safety is a concern in all contemporary cars.
We have a collection of thousands of cars in the Ministry of Defence and Chinese ones account for a very small number.
However regardless of if you’re traveling in a vehicle from China or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our people is not to plug Ministry of Defence devices into their car, to avoid having conversations at a classified classification in any vehicle, because of the growing risks of surveillance that exist in every single vehicle, to only have those secret conversations in protected areas. That’s a prudent and sensible thing for anyone concerned about security.
When it was suggested that it would be wise for the MoD to cease using every Chinese vehicles, the minister replied: That is precisely what we are looking into at the present time.”
Wider Defence Background
The announcement follows reports from Norway and Denmark have alerted the United Kingdom to the existence of multi-purpose kill switches in Chinese buses, which could allow China to disable buses and cause disruption to transport systems.
Furthermore, a Russian spy ship has been directing lasers at RAF aircrew, described as a “extremely risky” action by government representatives.
This broader security situation highlights the importance of robust measures and vigilance in all aspects of government activities, including transport usage to communication practices.
