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An defense official has stated that the MoD is actively examining the possible threats posed by Chinese cars, and staff have been instructed to refrain from discussing classified matters in all cars.

Security Advice for Defence Personnel

During a recently aired interview on a radio station, a defence minister commented on reports that Ministry of Defence officials have been instructed not to talk about classified material while travelling in China-made vehicles.

The minister explained that the MoD is “looking into” cars from China within its vehicle pools, but emphasised that security is a issue in every modern vehicles.

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

However regardless of if you’re traveling in a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, our instruction to our staff is to avoid connecting Ministry of Defence devices into their car, to avoid having conversations at a secret classification in any car, due to the increasing threats of surveillance that exist in all vehicle, to only have those confidential conversations in protected areas. That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for everyone concerned about security.

After it was put to him that it would be wise for the ministry to stop using every Chinese vehicles, Pollard replied: That is exactly what we are looking into at the present time.”

Broader Security Context

The revelation follows claims from Scandinavian countries have alerted the UK to the presence of dual-use kill switches in Chinese-made buses, which could enable China to disable buses and bring chaos to transport systems.

Furthermore, a Russian spy ship was reportedly directing lasers at RAF aircrew, labeled a “extremely risky” act by defence officials.

This wider security situation highlights the importance of robust measures and caution in all aspects of official activities, from transport usage to communication practices.