An defense minister has confirmed that the MoD is currently investigating the possible threats posed by Chinese vehicles, and personnel have been told to avoid talking about secret matters in all cars.
Security Guidance for Defence Personnel
During a recently aired appearance on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed claims that Ministry of Defence staff have been instructed not to talk about secret material while travelling in China-made cars.
He said that the MoD is “looking into” cars from China within its fleets, but emphasised that safety is a issue in all modern cars.
We have a collection of tens of thousands of cars in the MoD and Chinese ones represent a tiny fraction.
But regardless of if you’re driving a Chinese car or a car from another country, our instruction to our staff is not to plug Ministry of Defence devices into their car, not to have discussions at a classified level in any kind of vehicle, due to the growing risks of surveillance that exist in all vehicle, to only have those secret talks in protected areas. This is a prudent and reasonable thing for anyone concerned about security.
When it was suggested that it would be prudent for the ministry to stop using all cars from China, Pollard responded: ‘That’s exactly what we are looking into at the moment.”
Broader Security Context
The announcement follows reports from Scandinavian countries have warned the UK to the presence of dual-use shutdown mechanisms in Chinese-made buses, which could enable the Chinese government to switch off buses and bring chaos to transport systems.
Furthermore, a Russia intelligence vessel was reportedly shining laser beams at RAF aircrew, labeled a “extremely risky” act by defence officials.
The broader defence environment underscores the significance of robust measures and caution in all areas of official operations, including transport use to discussions practices.
