Britain must tighten military procurement rules to cut an "unhealthy dependency" on Chinese suppliers and stop focusing on choosing the "cheapest option," experts say.
Concerns about data being transmitted to China arose after recent local media reports that Chinese-made parts were found in cameras on the K3 Scout surveillance drones used by the British navy and 3D printers used by the army to build "suicide" drones. The British Ministry of Defence (MOD) was quoted as saying it found no evidence of any sensitive data being sent abroad.
Opposition politician Alicia Kearns of the Conservative Party said that a procurement focus on price is opening the U.K. to Chinese spying risks.
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"Years of prioritizing efficiency and the cheapest option has allowed the Chinese Communist Party to design vulnerabilities into our supply chains and weaken our sovereign industrial base," said Kearns, the shadow national security minister. "Procurement decisions must properly account for security and resilience, not simply upfront cost."
An MOD spokesperson said in response to a Nikkei Asia for comment, "The first duty of government is national security, and we take the security of our equipment, networks and data extremely seriously. We mitigate the risks through strict security procedures and robust safeguards are in place."
Britain is struggling to raise defense spending. On Thursday, the BBC and The Times newspaper, quoting sources, reported that the government has asked the army to stop training exercises and war games to save money.
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A long-awaited defense investment plan released in June said the government expects NATO commitments to reach just 2.7% of gross domestic product by 2027/2028 and expects to maintain that level throughout the decade. The former Defence Secretary John Healey had called for an increase to 3% by 2030, but has rolled back on that statement since he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in July.
Sam Goodman, senior policy director at the China Strategic Risks Institute, blamed the government's "failure to properly audit our defense supply chains, procurement rules that favor the cheapest competitor rather than the safest or domestic providers, and an unhealthy dependency on Chinese suppliers."
The ministry also is understood to have leased hundreds of Chinese-made electric vehicles, and photos have been shared on social media showing stickers warning staff not to connect official devices to these EVs or to hold sensitive conversations.
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Charles Parton, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said anything containing Chinese-made cellular modules will be capable of sending data to China and creating vulnerabilities.
"It's up to the [Defence Ministry] in setting out the procurement requirement to say, 'We can't afford to have any cars with Chinese cellular modules,'" he said.
The ministry has not recognized the problem, nor has it conducted an audit to remove the Chinese-made components, he said.
A "debarment list" was introduced last year following the enactment of the U.K. Procurement Act 2023, barring purchases from suppliers deemed risky. Parton said suppliers for Chinese cellular modules should be put on the list, though this has not happened.
Experts called on London to examine its procurement rules for holes and ensure national security carve-outs are applied to the entire defense supply chain. They also said Britain must count more on its allies in procurement.
"[The U.K. should] explore expanding joint procurement options with NATO partners, which would address the cost of using [non-Chinese] suppliers, and consider where it makes sense to require defense contractors to procure from trusted partners or to use domestic suppliers," Goodman said.
Earlier this year, a Conservative member of the house of lords said during a parliamentary debate that he was surprised to have been given an army uniform made in China for a trip to the Falkland Islands, a self-governing British territory off South America.
"Is it beyond our allies in NATO to be able to manufacture our own uniforms?" Graham Evans asked at the time.
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It is "unacceptable" that the British Armed Forces are being provided with kits made in China, Andrew Kinniburgh, director-general of British defense trade association Make UK Defence, told Nikkei Asia.
"We have regularly seen defense manufacturing outsourced overseas to the lowest bidder for too long," Kinniburgh said. "We have world-leading British companies in specialist textiles, 3D printing and drone manufacturing that can deliver for our Armed Forces, rather than handing work to China, which comes at a significant cost to our security and undermines our economy."
Kearns, the Conservative politician, said London's engagement with Beijing to build trade relations mustn't come at the expense of national security.
"We must not allow a hostile foreign political party the 'kill switch' over our critical national infrastructure nor our defensive capabilities," she said. "Reducing our reliance on China will take sustained investment and ruthless interrogation of supply chains, and it must be a national effort. Without national security, we can never have economic security."
Accusations of spying have dogged the bilateral relationship as well as China's ties with European countries. This year, two men in London were found guilty of spying for Hong Kong and jailed, while a Chinese woman was arrested in Norway on espionage allegations.
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