An defence minister has confirmed that the Ministry of Defence is actively investigating the possible security risks posed by Chinese vehicles, while staff have been advised to avoid discussing secret information in all cars.
Safety Guidance for Defence Staff
In a recently aired appearance on LBC, a defence minister addressed claims that Ministry of Defence officials have been told not to talk about classified material while travelling in Chinese vehicles.
He stated that the ministry is “looking into” Chinese vehicles within its fleets, but stressed that security is a issue in every modern vehicles.
We have a collection of thousands of vehicles in the Ministry of Defence and those vehicles account for a tiny fraction.
But regardless of if you’re traveling in a vehicle from China or a non-Chinese car, what we’ve asked our staff is not to plug MoD technology into their car, to avoid having discussions at a secret level in any kind of vehicle, due to the growing threats of surveillance that are present in all vehicle, to restrict those confidential talks in secure locations. This is a prudent and sensible thing for everyone worried about safety.
After it was suggested that it would be wise for the ministry to stop using every Chinese vehicles, the minister replied: ‘That’s exactly what we are looking into at the moment.”
Wider Defence Context
This announcement follows claims from Norway and Denmark have alerted the UK to the existence of dual-use kill switches in Chinese-made buses, which could allow China to switch off buses and bring chaos to public transit.
Furthermore, a Russia spy ship was reportedly directing laser beams at RAF aircrew, described as a “extremely risky” action by defence officials.
The broader defence environment underscores the importance of strong measures and caution in every aspects of government activities, including transport use to discussions habits.
