TOM TUGENDHAT: This isn't paranoia. Xi Jinping has put a pistol on the table
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When was the last time you stripped a car to find out what made it work? You can do it with an old Land Rover, but modern vehicles hide more than just spark plugs under the bonnet.
Some of the Chinese-made parts are constantly talking to Beijing, and the implications for national security should worry the Government far more than they do.
I know this sounds like we’re back in the 1950s, but this isn’t paranoia, it is engineering.
The Met Police’s 1,600 electric and hybrid vehicles run on Chinese batteries and cellular modules.
Buses built by Chinese manufacturer BYD have a satnav and phone signal device. Each connection updates the software and controls the electronic engine.
And you can’t switch them off. Norway’s bus company Ruter parked a new Chinese Yutong bus deep underground in a disused mine where no outside signal could reach it.
When they took a good look inside, the battery and power controls were still trying to communicate with Beijing.
And the software updates aren’t optional. Errors in code and changes in systems mean keeping the battery working and stopping it overheating and catching fire is a full-time job.
China, led by Xi Jinping, could disable police cars, buses and ambulances at the flick of a switch, sources told The Mail on Sunday
Norway’s bus company Ruter parked a new Chinese Yutong in a disused mine but despite there being no signal, it still attempted to communicate with Beijing
The updates are part of the maintenance. They’re also part of the architecture of Chinese control.
The truth is Chinese trade isn’t just about sales, it’s used to create dependency and knock out competition. But so what? What’s the worst that can happen?
Well, just imagine this. Rush-hour roads and bridges blocked by buses that won’t move and cars that won’t start. Our entire logistics network closed down and our solar farms drop off the grid.
We saw a glimpse of this in San Francisco, when a power cut left driverless taxis stopped dead across junctions.
Now Uber is working with China’s Baidu to bring the same vehicles to London.
Would Xi Jinping dare? He’s already targeting us hard. In a crisis over Taiwan he might go further.
And even if he doesn’t, he’s put a pistol on the table and in any negotiation, it’s hard to ignore it.
A government that knows its police cars, ambulances and more can be killed from abroad will think twice before speaking up for itself.
So what has Whitehall done? Ordered Chinese-made BYD buses for London, of course.
That’s where green zealotry leads you. Uninterested ministers must realise that trade and defence aren’t separate, they’re the same conversation, and we have gone quiet.
That’s where Ed Miliband threatens us all. His evangelical obsession with an agenda that sees us not just poorer but vulnerable to foreign attack leaves me wondering if we’re already prisoners of tomorrow’s technology. We don’t have to be.
I know what quick wins really cost. We can’t afford to wait any longer. A country that can’t trust its own police cars isn’t secure.
A Government that won’t even look under the bonnet isn’t serious.
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