British troops told not to discuss secrets in cars from China

Chinese cars could be banned from the British Armed Forces’ fleet because of security risks posed by built-in microphones and cameras, a minister has suggested.

Britain has warned of the risks of discussing secrets while in Chinese-made cars. Picture: AFP.

Chinese cars could be banned from the British Armed Forces’ fleet because of security risks posed by built-in microphones and cameras, a minister has suggested.

Defence Procurement Minister Luke Pollard said the Ministry of Defence was investigating how to make its cars more secure and said that soldiers had been told not to discuss secrets in them.

Mr Pollard said Chinese-made cars represented only a very small number of the tens of thousands owned by the MoD, but the precautions were “prudent”.

“Whether you’re driving a Chinese car or a non-Chinese car, what we’ve asked our people to do is not plug MoD technology into their vehicle, not to have conversations at a secret classification in any vehicle due to the increasing threats of surveillance that exist in every single vehicle [and] to only have those secret conversations in secure locations,” he said. “That’s a prudent and reasonable thing for anyone concerned about security.”

He said that ministers were investigating whether there should be a ban on Chinese-made vehicles in the military, but noted that the “pervasiveness” of Chinese technology made it difficult to entirely rule out its use.

He added: “There’s Chinese technology everywhere. Because it is everywhere, we have to take more prudent steps across our entire economy. That’s what we’re looking at doing with our colleagues across government to make sure that we can keep ourselves safe.”

On Wednesday the government said it would launch a campaign to “disrupt and deter” espionage after MI5 issued a warning to MPs about a Beijing plot to “cultivate” people with links to politicians.

It named two “headhunters” who it said were being used by the Chinese Ministry of State Security to target people who were “one step removed” from high-priority targets.

Those contacted included advisers to former Tory ministers, advisers to Labour ministers and officials.

However, Mr Pollard added: “It’s certainly true that China poses challenges and threats to our national security, but it also presents opportunities in the economic space as well.”

THE TIMES