America's overseas bases see Chinese electric cars as security risk: Report

New Delhi: There is a growing fear that Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) in western countries pose a security threat as they are capable of storing camera footage of sensitive locations and sending it to Beijing. Consequently, the US has banned China-linked cars from its own market and military bases, according to an article in The National Interest.

While there is increasing awareness that such China-linked electric vehicles can be used for espionage, there are several countries, in which the US has military bases, that are still allowing these vehicles. This is seen as a potential danger, states the article written by Christopher Nye.

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It points out that starting October 26, Kadena Air Base on Okinawa banned cars made by BYD, the Chinese electric-vehicle giant, from entering the premises. The order covers private cars, taxis, vans, and contractors. A base spokesperson was quoted as saying that the vehicles “present an unacceptable and unmitigable risk to our personnel and our mission.”

In the US, a Commerce Department rule bars Chinese connected-vehicle software from model year 2027 and hardware from 2030, and from model year 2027 it bars Chinese-controlled automakers from selling connected cars in America at all, wherever they are built.

In June, the department denied Polestar, the Swedish brand owned by China’s Geely, the authorisation it needed to sell cars in America from model year 2027 onward, even though one of its models is assembled in South Carolina. The Pentagon added BYD to its list of Chinese military companies the same month, the article observes.

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The article points out that American troops stationed overseas live and work under allied laws, and Seoul has let Chinese cars onto its own bases. The Chosun Ilbo reported on October 16 that at least 190 Chinese connected cars are registered to enter South Korean military sites, including the Cheongju base that flies F-35s, the Yecheon wing receiving the first KF-21s, the Busan naval command where American carriers berth, and the submarine command at Jinhae.

A week earlier, the JoongAng Ilbo cited navy records showing that unregistered Chinese vehicles had entered naval facilities at least 565 times this year. Seoul’s defense ministry says it will restrict connected cars at sensitive sites by year’s end.

The article also highlights that in September, Norway’s Home Guard ran an exercise at Oslo’s airport in rental cars that included Deepal models from Changan, a state-controlled automaker. When soldiers tapped the touchscreen, they found stored camera footage of who got in and out, the routes they drove, and the codes used to open gates and doors at military facilities. An official at Norway’s National Security Authority said, “We don’t know for sure where the information is sent or what it’s used for.”

The article underscores that automakers’ own privacy policies show where such material can travel. MG, a brand of the state-owned SAIC group, tells British customers that in “specific and clearly defined cases” their personal data “may also be processed in China” by its parent company in Shanghai. Xpeng’s British policy allows transfers to “our affiliates, such as our headquarters in China.”