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An defense minister has revealed that the Ministry of Defence is actively investigating the potential security risks posed by Chinese-made vehicles, while personnel have been advised to avoid discussing secret information in any vehicles.

Safety Guidance for Defence Personnel

In a recent appearance on LBC, Luke Pollard addressed claims that MoD officials have been told not to talk about classified information while travelling in Chinese cars.

He stated that the ministry is “investigating” cars from China within its fleets, however noted that safety is a issue in every modern vehicles.

We have a collection of thousands of vehicles in the MoD and those vehicles represent a tiny fraction.

However regardless of if you’re traveling in a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, what we’ve asked our people is to avoid connecting Ministry of Defence devices into their car, not to have discussions at a secret level in any kind of vehicle, because of the increasing threats of surveillance that exist in every single vehicle, to only have those secret conversations in secure locations. That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for anyone worried about safety.

When it was suggested that it would be prudent for the MoD to stop using every Chinese vehicles, Pollard replied: ‘That’s exactly what we’re investigating at the present time.”

Broader Defence Context

The announcement follows reports from Scandinavian countries have alerted the UK to the presence of multi-purpose shutdown mechanisms in Chinese electric buses, which could allow the Chinese government to disable public transport and bring disruption to transport systems.

Furthermore, a Russian intelligence vessel has been shining laser beams at Royal Air Force aircrew, described as a “extremely risky” act by government representatives.

This wider defence situation highlights the importance of robust measures and caution in every areas of government operations, including vehicle use to communication practices.