US warning over Chinese tech prompts concerns in the UK as Starmer seeks 'reset'

Highways, chargers and traffic cameras across the United States are under urgent scrutiny after officials warned that "hidden radios" may have been embedded inside Chinese-made batteries and inverters. The US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration revealed that undocumented cellular radios had already been discovered in Chinese equipment - prompting fears that Beijing is using its dominance in renewable and EV supply chains to plant surveillance tools inside critical infrastructure.

British experts have voiced similar concerns, warning that the danger extends beyond EVs and chargers. Grace Theodoulou, from the Council on Geostrategy, pointed to the prospect of Chinese firm MingYang supplying turbines for a major offshore wind project off Aberdeen. "With wind turbines specifically, they are known to contain kill switches, which means the manufacturers can operate them," she claimed. "Even if they only supply 15 percent, the effect could be substantial. Fundamentally, no Chinese company is independent of state control. If the CCP tells it to do something, it will comply."

She noted that MingYang has partnered with Octopus Energy in a bid to supply turbines, warning this may possibly be an attempt to skirt concerns by teaming up with a trusted UK provider.

She also said: "The real concern is the ability to pressure the UK - for example, if tensions over Taiwan escalate."

The Ministry of Defence has also restricted electric vehicles at secure bases such as RAF Wyton, amid fears their Chinese-made batteries and sensors could be exploited for monitoring.

MPs have warned that smart devices, chargers and meters fitted with imported electronics may be repurposed for data collection or sabotage.

UK cyber experts have also exposed flaws in home EV chargers that could allow outsiders to track charging patterns.

The Conservative government in 2022 ordered Huawei technology to be stripped from Britain's 5G networks by 2027, after the National Cyber Security Centre judged the company a "high-risk vendor".

But Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has since called for a "reset" in relations with Beijing, stressing the importance of trade links. Critics argue that approach underplays the risks.

Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, said: "China has different strategic interests to ourselves.

"It has shown a desire to discover information it may not be entitled to, using infrastructure tools in other areas.

"It stands to reason it would do so again in the UK, which is why the safest course has always been to use non-Chinese equipment in anything resembling strategic infrastructure."

He added that the current government was "chasing the buck":

"It seems to be the usual one of paying lip service to the idea there might be something suspicious about China, and then rushing into embracing Chinese money.

"But in areas like EVs, where Chinese cars can record huge amounts of data about their occupants, the risks are simply too high."

Michael Tigges, of US cyber-security company Huntress, referring to the warning issued by US officials, said such implants serve two purposes: "One is data collection: EV usage, traffic patterns, substation loads. The other is impact: at the right moment, adversaries could trigger outages across cameras, chargers and roads to generate maximum disruption."

Unlike conventional hacking, the threat described by US officials resides at the hardware level. By embedding miniature radios or sensors inside batteries, inverters or chargers, adversaries can create a channel invisible to most network defences.

"These radios can act as listeners, picking up electromagnetic interference and voltage patterns along physical infrastructure," Tigges explained.

"That data can then be transmitted without anyone realising."

Analysts say the warnings highlight a growing dilemma for Western governments.

Chinese firms are central to global production of batteries, inverters and solar technology.

Avoiding them entirely is almost impossible.

Yet with clean-energy and EV infrastructure expanding rapidly - the UK Government has pledged to ramp up deployment of charging stations and offshore wind as part of its net-zero targets - the potential attack surface is growing just as fast.

A senior Whitehall source said: "It is naïve to think of this solely in terms of turning the lights out. Information itself is power.

"If an adversary knows when and where our cars charge, or how our roads are managed, they are watching us every day."