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September 27, 2025
For so long it sounded implausible, even laughable, and I scoffed aloud at the conniptions of the more conspiratorial commenters on every review I wrote of a new Chinese car, with the electric ones in particular providing the most shock value.
Outraged readers swore to me, and at me, that anyone who bought one was a dangerous idiot, that these were wheeled weapons of war and that the Chinese government was laughing maniacally at us while plotting our downfall.
Then, just last week, Alastair MacGibbon, a former adviser to prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and now chief strategy officer at security company CyberCX, told a cyber summit in Sydney that millions of Chinese-made internet-connected devices, including electric vehicles, effectively were ticking time bombs that could be remotely disabled or, spectacularly, made to explode.
This, too, seemed absurd to a desperately cynical motoring journalist and, indeed, as unlikely as a government using a technology of yesteryear, like the pager (something your children probably think has something to do with their least favourite dead format, books) as a deadly weapon against its enemies.
Afflicted with a pre-internet habit of doing my own research, however, I stumbled across several credible reports that tempted me to delete my doubting and superior replies to the online commentariat and replace them with the sentiment: “It turns out that just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”
Strap in for the kind of ideological upending I experienced after finding out what the Chinese government has been up to with solar panels. According to a story by Reuters in May this year, “kill switches” that could allow China to shut down power grids and cause blackouts were discovered in equipment at solar farms in the US.
Now, without even putting on my tin-foil hat, I have to wonder why a foreign power might be doing that.
The Chinese-installed spyware, including cellular radios, was found in Chinese-supplied power inverters – and batteries – used to connect solar panels and wind turbines to electricity grids, not only in the US but also around the world. These systems could be deployed remotely to freeze power grids, with clearly catastrophic results.
“That effectively means there is a built-in way to physically destroy the grid,” a source told Reuters.
Mike Rogers, a former director of the US National Security Agency, explained: “We know that China believes there is value in placing at least some elements of our core infrastructure at risk of destruction or disruption.”
Worse still, in an incident in November last year, Reuters reported, numerous solar inverters in the US were remotely disabled from China.
I have to ask, why wasn’t this a bigger story at the time?
All of this disturbing discovery led me to explore, once again, the reasoning behind the recent US decision to ban the importation of all Chinese cars, which turns out to be have been spawned by fears they could be used for surveillance, or even “deliberately crashed”.
This was a decision finalised by the outgoing Biden administration in January this year, which seems to have been more long-lived than its effort to ban TikTok.
It’s also worth reminding yourself that Chinese companies – including TikTok and carmakers – are required by Chinese law to co-operate with the country’s intelligence agencies. You also may want to keep an eye out for the phrase “state-owned car company”.
Last year Joe Biden’s commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, cited national security concerns when calling for a ban on key Chinese software and hardware in connected vehicles. The software bans will take effect in the 2027 model year and those on hardware in 2029.
“It’s really important because we don’t want two million Chinese cars on the road and then realise … we have a threat,” Raimondo said.
Meanwhile in Australia, at that cyber summit, MacGibbon was urging our public officials not to even ride in Chinese-made EVs.
“The last decision of the national security committee of the Turnbull government was to take high-risk vendors out of 5G networks,” he said.
“Fast forward seven years and … potentially millions of connected devices – not made in China but controlled by China – are all through our systems. Those cars that we talk about, whether they’re electric or not, are listening devices, and they’re surveillance devices in terms of cameras.
“Let’s talk potential scenarios. Take off the safety features of household batteries so that they overcharge. Take off those same safety features for electric vehicles. Just turn them off from the manufacturer so that those vehicles explode.”
While the US is moving to keep its roads free of Chinese vehicles, in Australia since 2019 more than 265,000 Chinese-made EVs and hybrids have been registered, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.
In August this year, four Chinese brands – BYD, Great Wall Motors, MG and Chery – had taken up spots in Australia’s top 10 car sales figures.
Just last week, the Canberra Institute of Technology unveiled a new $5m Cyber Security Centre for Excellence that will address security concerns with modern cars. The new TAFE course “delivers education and training to prepare the electric vehicle service and support workforce to meet the rapid growth of electric vehicle use in Australia”, a CIT spokesperson said.
Stephen Kuper, from local organisation Defence Connect, has described China’s efforts as “grey zone” warfare.
“We come to realise that just maybe we have been sowing the seeds of our own destruction, and all the cheap TVs, solar panels and Kmart or Ikea knick-knacks in the world (aren’t) worth our own prosperity, sovereignty and at the social level, dignity and self-reliance,” he wrote in May this year.
“The proliferation of ‘smart technology’ in our daily lives – from our mobile phones and smart TVs, through to the increasing numbers of Chinese-manufactured electric and combustion vehicles with integrated ‘smart systems’ – (exposes) the length and breadth of the Australian economy and everyday lives to potential risk and coercion at an unprecedented level.”
So what is the federal government’s plan to deal with this looming threat? In September last year, when the US announced its plans for a ban, a spokesman for the Department of Home Affairs leapt into action: “The government is closely monitoring the developments in the US on this matter, and the Department of Home Affairs has been proactively engaging with the US government to understand the implications of any proposed regulation.”
The Coalition also was exercised by the matter, and opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson called for action.
“It’s hard to see how it is in our national interest for companies headquartered in an authoritarian state to become the dominant supplier of vehicles in Australia and retain access to the enormous amounts of data they collect,” he said. “It’s time for our Cyber Security Minister, Tony Burke, to step up and outline what action the government will take or why he thinks it’s not a problem, even though our closest allies do.”
Look, I remain cynical, because it’s a default, but if someone suggests to me now that there’s at least a possibility that China is embedding software in its vehicles that could be construed as a threat to our liberty, I’m no longer going to laugh at them.