Police cars, ambulances and buses are all at risk of being remotely sabotaged by China because of Britain’s over-dependence on the country’s electric vehicle technology, security sources have told The Mail on Sunday.
asserted
sources → sabotage → Sunday
China’s potential ability to control the vehicles at the flick of a switch has emerged amid growing concerns in the intelligence agencies over the Government’s softly-softly approach to Beijing.
asserted
ability → control → Beijing
The threat to the vehicles comes from ‘kill switches’ built into Chinese-made components found in electric vehicles (EVs), transport networks, hospitals, the power grid and renewable technologies such as solar panels.
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threat → come → panels
The Metropolitan Police alone operates 1,600 electric and hybrid vehicles powered by lithium batteries that include Chinese cellular devices, which connect the cars to mobile communication networks.
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which → operate → networks
Without concerted preventative action, the technology offers ‘remote actors’ the ability to access a vehicle’s electronics to cause it to stop or crash.
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it → offer → electronics
For this reason, Whitehall sources have told the MoS that emergency vehicles that rely on Chinese technology have been stripped down and effectively rebuilt to remove Beijing’s capacity for remote sabotage.
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that → tell → sabotage
China, led by Xi Jinping, could disable police cars, buses and ambulances at the flick of a switch, sources told The Mail on Sunday
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sources → lead → Sunday
The drastic sweep for Chinese components comes as:
- Kill switches have been found in solar panel and wind turbine connectors, raising fears of national blackouts
-
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switches → come → blackouts
Security experts warn that driverless cars can be hacked, ahead of Uber’s planned roll-out next year
-
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cars → warn → out
MI5 warns that 100 academics at UK universities have unwittingly aided Chinese intelligence
In 2022, a forensic sweep of a hybrid car used by the three prime ministers who served that year found a tracking device, which was suspected of sending data back to China.
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which → warn → China
China’s share of the British car market has boomed, doubling in the past year alone to nearly one in five of all new cars sold.
The kill switches have also been discovered in power ‘inverters’ used to connect solar panels and wind turbines to the electricity grid.
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switches → boom → grid
The parts were not included in any of the plans given to engineers installing the equipment, and were only found when security experts examined energy equipment and compared the parts to the official documents provided by the manufacturer.
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experts → include → manufacturer
Kill switches have also been found in the Yutong electric buses operating on British roads.
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switches → find → roads
The Norwegian bus company Ruter, which first discovered the kill switch, found that the buses contained a Sim card, which connected to a Romanian provider.
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which → discover → provider
This is to remotely monitor the battery to keep it from overheating, but a single software update from a different country would be sufficient to disable the vehicles.
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update → monitor → vehicles
The Chinese chips are so complex that experts say that disabling the Sim cards might not be enough to prevent the vehicles from being ‘killed’.
uncertain
disabling → say → vehicles
Despite this, more Chinese-made buses have been ordered by the Department for Transport – against the wishes of security experts.
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buses → make → experts
Concerns have also been raised about electric vans and lorries, with one source saying: ‘If China gets into electric vans and HGVs it poses a serious threat.
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it → raise → threat
They could switch them off, crash them, block roads or bridges.
uncertain
They → switch → roads
They would have control of our entire logistics network.
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They → have → network
China’s EV makers, like all ostensibly ‘private’ firms in the country, work under the Chinese Communist Party’s National Intelligence Laws requiring organisations and individuals to ‘support, assist and cooperate with state intelligence work’.
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makers → work → work
Little wonder that Uber’s plans to launch driverless taxis in London next year – in partnership with Chinese tech giant Baidu – have alarmed experts, who fear the infotainment systems could easily be hacked by foreign agents.
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systems → launch → agents
Driverless vehicles in San Francisco were halted during a recent city-wide power failure, leading to blocked roads.
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vehicles → halt → roads
It follows the revelation in this newspaper last month that Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband was regarded with suspicion by Whitehall security officials over his doveish approach to Beijing.
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Miliband → follow → Beijing
One source accused Mr Miliband – who pledged to go ‘further and faster’ on replacing gas and oil with renewable sources such as solar power while in his previous job as Energy Secretary – of ‘appeasing’ China.
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who → accuse → China
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has taken a soft line on China, leading to suspicion from Whitehall security officials
This is despite the risks it poses to British security because the UK is so reliant on Beijing for the supply of solar panels, with two-thirds of our stock coming from China.
John Hemmings, the inaugural Director for the National Security Centre at the Henry Jackson Society, said the so-called ‘Made in China’ hacking strategy
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Hemmings → take → strategy
The strategy focuses on embedding secret components into Chinese electronics to bypass firewalls and establish a direct back-channel to Beijing’s battalions of state-backed hackers.
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strategy → focus → hackers
The hacking is the result of more than a decade of investment by China’s president Xi Jinping, including state-sponsored ‘hacking competitions, which has led to the creation of more than 30,000 new cyber-security experts each year.
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which → include → experts
Dr Hemmings criticised the ‘wet’ attitude of the UK Government to the Chinese threat, saying: ‘Even the EU is taking a more robust approach to Beijing than we are, which tells its own story.’
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which → criticise → story
In March, the EU froze the assets of the China-based Integrity Technology Group and Anxun Information Technology in response to claims it had been involved in hacking critical infrastructure across the bloc.
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it → freeze → bloc
It has also drafted legislation to exclude Beijing-linked companies such as Huawei from sensitive projects.
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It → draft → projects
In contrast, a security source said the Government is struggling to catch up.
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Government → say → contrast
‘These are all pretty new ministers who change on a regular basis,’ the source said.
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source → change → basis
‘And most of them don’t understand the science and tech.
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most → understand → science
Even inside the civil service it’s a mess.
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it → ’ → service
‘Abolishing the science and technology department and putting it into trade means they have not got their eye on the ball.
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they → abolish → ball
There’s a couple of people looking at this but their minds are elsewhere.
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minds → ’ → this
At every level this issue is slipping through the cracks.
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issue → slip → cracks
’
But ideology matters, too.
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ideology → matter → ?
‘There’s a belief in Government that growth can only come from Chinese trade and investment,’ said the source.
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source → ’ → trade
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
