Chinese-built SUVs used to ferry dignitaries around at September’s Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in Honiara were likely equipped to spy for Beijing, Australian government security officials believe.
New Zealand PM Christopher Luxon and Australia’s Anthony Albanese were among PIF leaders picked up at Honiara airport and later chauffeured to forum meetings in the Chinese vehicles.
“Canberra”, wrote Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) foreign editor Peter Hartcher, “doesn’t want any of the leaders to travel in China’s cars because they are inevitably set up to spy for Beijing.”
Albanese veered away from the implied security risk. Asked by a reporter whether he would have preferred to travel to PIF meetings in a Toyota Hilux, Albanese responded: “Seriously? It’s a car (the Chinese SUV). Cars get you from A to B.”
The vehicles were Tank 500 hybrids, large petrol-electric SUVs built by Great Wall Motors, one of China’s largest automotive outfits. The Tank 500 is on sale in New Zealand at around $80,000.
Forty (40) were gifted to the Solomon Islands by the Chinese government. They were seen as China’s response to Australia providing 61 utes – including Toyota Hiluxes, Ford Rangers, Nissan Navaras – to be used as transport during the forum before being given to the Solomon Islands police force.
China’s ambassador to the Solomon Islands, Cai Weiming, told reporters at the PIF that the Tank 500 vehicles represented “advanced Chinese manufacturing” and Beijing’s “unwavering commitment” to the success of the summit.
China was not officially invited to the PIF. Its largesse in the form of the SUVs was another transparent example of the duels between main PIF funding body Canberra and Beijing’s deepening push to build economic, military, and strategic influence in the Pacific.
Australian cyber experts have long warned that Chinese-made vehicles are outfitted for surveillance. “It’s a car that listens and can watch,” says Australia’s foremost cyber security specialist Alastair MacGibbon, who also works with New Zealand’s cyber crime busters.
“I think people are probably a bit wilfully blind, sadly, when it comes to these issues,” MacGibbon has said. “The simple reality is that these vehicles are mobile surveillance devices, and it is technically possible for the manufacturer, who has to have constant connectivity with these vehicles, to turn off features like battery safety features which could lead to explosions.”
Of course modern vehicles everywhere are equipped with numerous sensors, cameras, microphones, GPS, and internet connectivity. This technology can collect vast amounts of data, including location, audio, visual, and even biometric information about the vehicle’s occupants and surroundings.
This data is regularly transmitted to manufacturer servers, raising fears that the Chinese government could compel its companies to provide access to sensitive information under China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017. The law requires its citizens and organisations to assist state intelligence agencies.
Included in Australia’s latest aid package to the Solomons is support for its cybersecurity. There is heightened interest from Canberra and Wellington in the governance of the Solomons since it signed a security pact with China in 2022.
The deal raised eyebrows among the then Australian government of PM Scott Morrison, just as a similar agreement on strategic ties between China and the Cook Islands earlier this year provoked a war of words between New Zealand and the Cooks.
Before the Solomons agreement was signed, Beijing’s agents had been offering bags of cash to Solomons’ politicians to look more favourably on China, said a SMH report.
How do we know, asked the newspaper’s foreign editor Hartcher. He wrote: “The then-deputy leader of the opposition,Peter Kenilorea Jr, said publicly that China offered MPs the equivalent of between about $A300,000 and $A900,00 to lend their support to Beijing. The premier of Malaita Province, Daniel Suidani, said he’d been offered the equivalent of around $A150,000.”
Canberra and Wellington are also keeping tabs on PIF member Vanuatu after its Prime Minister Jotham Napat recently pulled away from signing a 10-year, $A500 million aid agreement with Australia.
PM Napat said the key sticking point was that the pact could hinder Vanuatu’s ability to receive funding from other nations for critical infrastructure. Beijing built a presidential palace overlooking capital Port Villa at an estimated $A31 million. Beijing has built other administration buildings in Vanuatu.
The PIF first met in Wellington in 1971. Founder members were Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Fiji, Nauru, Tonga, Samoa.