A defense minister has revealed that the MoD is actively examining the potential security risks associated with Chinese vehicles, and staff have been told to avoid talking about secret information in any vehicles.
Safety Advice for MoD Personnel
During a recent appearance on LBC, a defence minister addressed reports that Ministry of Defence officials have been told not to talk about classified information while travelling in China-made vehicles.
He explained that the MoD is “looking into” Chinese vehicles within its fleets, but emphasised that security is a concern in all contemporary vehicles.
Our department has a collection of tens of thousands of vehicles in the Ministry of Defence and Chinese ones represent a tiny fraction.
But regardless of if you’re traveling in a vehicle from China or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our staff is not to plug MoD technology into their car, to avoid having discussions at a secret classification in any kind of vehicle, due to the growing threats of eavesdropping that are present in all vehicle, to only have those secret conversations in secure locations. This is a prudent and reasonable thing for everyone worried about security.
After it was suggested that it would be wise for the MoD to stop using every Chinese vehicles, the minister replied: ‘That’s exactly what we are looking into at the moment.”
Broader Defence Context
The announcement follows claims from Norway and Denmark have alerted the UK to the existence of dual-use shutdown mechanisms in Chinese buses, which could allow China to disable buses and bring chaos to transport systems.
Additionally, a Russia spy ship was reportedly shining laser beams at RAF aircrew, described as a “extremely risky” act by defence officials.
This broader defence situation underscores the significance of robust protocols and caution in every aspects of official operations, including transport use to communication habits.
