Chinese electric vehicles have become the focus of a new security scare, but connected cars from every country carry cybersecurity risks. Australia needs stronger protections without allowing fear of China to derail the clean energy transition.

I was drafted for the Vietnam War in the 1970s but failed the medical – fortunately. The ‘Reds under the bed’ conspiracy about Vietnam falling down the map into our bedrooms in Australia was not one we are proud to remember. Despite the unchanged political regime in Vietnam, we now seem to have no troubles trading with Vietnam and encouraging Australian tourists to go there. And why not, as the conspiracy was sheer nonsense.

In a confrontational world, China, among many Asian countries, is apparently now to be viewed with great mistrust and feared with a new conspiracy: ‘Chinese electric vehicles will be spying on us!’

The extraordinary fear associated with EVs from China has been promulgated by the ABC Four Corners show ‘Asleep at the Wheel’. The focus was a genuine vulnerability – how easy it was to hack into the........

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