Chinese-made EVs to flood UK - but they are 'recipe for mayhem' warns security expert

CHINA-ECONOMY-AUTOMOBILE

A leading security expert has warned that western leaders are “asleep at the wheel” when it comes to the threats posed by Chinese electric vehicles (EVs).

With “tens of thousands” of cheap Chinese EVs expected to be sold in the UK, Europe and the West this year, the geopolitical power and leverage that gives the Chinese Communist Party must not be overstated, according to security author Edward Lucas.

Writing for Mail+, he said that Chinese EVs in the West would act as “mobile surveillance devices” that could be unilaterally switched off by the CCP at its whim, sparking chaos, death and destruction.

He wrote: “The result of China’s ravenous appetite for our data will be that every commercial, political, military and intelligence secret in every Western country is potentially compromised. So too is every facet of our personal privacy, making us vulnerable to blackmail and bullying.”

Referring to western leaders’ apparent lack of appetite to confront the thorny issue of Chinese EVs flooding the global market until recently, he added: “The truth is that, when it comes to Chinese EVs, our decision-makers are still asleep at the wheel.”

Writer, security specialist and Liberal Democrat candidate…

Terrifyingly, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate added that Chinese EVs would mean that the CCP no longer needed to bug the vehicles of British politicians, military leaders and the like – which they did to a Downing Street vehicle last year. Instead, the EV itself would be the bug.

Discussing the potential for an EV market dominated by CCP-subsidised brands like BYD and Geely, Mr Lucas said: “This is a recipe for mayhem. Hackers demonstrated years ago how easy it was to remotely disable a single vehicle. With the full weight of a state cyber-warfare agency behind it, such attacks would be far more devastating and widespread.”

The European Union was this month accused by China of “protectionism”, after the bloc began investigating some Chinese EV brands.

Meanwhile in February Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds saying that his party would consider using “trade remedies” – a euphemism for tariffs – on Chinese EVs.

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Mr Reynolds said: “There are some sectors where I look at just the sheer overcapacity that’s coming out of China and I worry that is inconsistent with how a healthy, global market economy should operate.

“Where there is a concern that we’re not facing free and fair and healthy competition, we’re right to use trade remedies as an answer to that.”