Ministers urged to avoid Chinese cars amid security concerns over data tracking and government use

Senior Federal Government ministers are coy on whether they would use Chinese cars after concerns were raised that popular brands such as BYD can be tracked by the Chinese government.

Chinese manufacturers, including BYD, last month became Australia’s second-most-popular source of new cars, after Japan, driven by low prices, tax breaks and features praised by car critics.

But a national security expert warned Chinese cars might be eavesdropping on passengers and feeding information to Beijing under laws requiring Chinese corporations to gather intelligence around the world.

Education Minister Jason Clare declined to say if he would prefer to avoid riding in a Chinese-made car. “I’m about to ride in a Mazda. Just getting my family back into the car to head down to Canberra,” he told The Nightly.

Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth was even more guarded when asked about Chinese cars. “Look, I’m not really able to provide a comment to you there on that,” she said.

‘No connection’

James Laurenceson, the director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney, suggested it would be sensible for ministers to avoid getting transport in a Chinese-made vehicle, even if the threat was exaggerated.

“Don’t make Chinese cars part of the Commonwealth car fleet. Fine,” he said.

Ministers have access to a government-operated fleet of BMWs, which are not meant to be used for partisan or private events.

Owners say they are not concerned about the security threat because they can disconnect their cars by not paying for access to a mobile network.

“There is no connection from my Chinese car to the internet,” one Nightly reader wrote. “How’s it going to transmit this supposed data?”

BYD did not respond to requests for comment. BYD’s Shark 6 plug-in hybrid ute was Australia’s sixth most popular vehicle in February. A CarExpert reviewer described it as “a joy to drive, packed with great features, and highly recommended”.

The world’s biggest electric car maker also sells the Dolphin, Australia’s cheapest new fully electric car at $32,711 on the road.

Australians with a novated lease can claim all of their financing and running costs as a taxation deduction, one of the reasons Chinese manufacturers have 78 per cent of the EV market in Australia.

Spying for Beijing

Clive Hamilton, the author of Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, said Chinese corporations were required by law to spy for the Chinese Communist Party’s Ministry of State Security.

“Certainly, Western governments are very alert to the danger of senior government people driving Chinese-manufactured cars because they could track their routes, know where they are,” he told The Nightly.

“I haven’t heard people talk about conversations being recorded but it’s perfectly plausible that that might happen.

“So certainly, if I were advising the Defence Minister, I would tell him not to say anything of a sensitive nature in a Chinese-manufactured vehicle.”

Former Labor industry minister Kim Carr suggested it was irrational to imply Chinese-made cars were a national security threat.

“These are the claims that are easy to make but difficult to demonstrate,” he told The Nightly.

“You can build a level, I think, of irrational hysteria about these matters. Confidentiality is a much more complex matter than claims that the Chinese are going to bug the car.”

Mr Carr said ministers should simply refrain from discussing any confidential matters in a Commonwealth car in the presence of a driver.

“We were advised not to discuss certain matters in the car. Any sensible politician takes precautions on confidentiality and it’s got bugger all to do with the country of origin of a vehicle’s manufacture.”

Professor Laurenceson said it would be overkill to follow a US ban on Chinese cars. In January, then President Joe Biden banned cars with Chinese software from being imported from 2027.

“The Government can inform Australians of the risks, whatever they might be, and individual consumers can make their own choices,” he said.

“I suspect most Australians don’t imagine Beijing would have any interest in spying on them, and weigh price and quality over some theoretical and minute possibility they might be spied upon.”

Chinese cameras

Professor Hamilton, who teaches public ethics at Charles Sturt University, said Chinese-made cranes on Australian ports were still a security threat, given that defence hardware was imported from the United States.

“I haven’t heard, for example, the problem of cranes discussed in Australia,” he said.

“For defence purposes, they could track military equipment being transferred around the world using these cranes; get to know military secrets by knowing what’s coming in and out, and being able to identify the containers as they’re being transported or anything sensitive that’s being imported or exported from Australia.”

Chinese-made Hikvision and Dahua CCTV cameras have been gradually removed from Australian Government buildings since 2023.

“Essentially, the Ministry of State Security or some agency in China could see the vision of whoever’s coming and going from the Attorney-General’s building,” Professor Hamilton said.

“This surveillance: it’s kind of everywhere and governments are now paying attention but probably not as much attention as they should be.”