To complicate things further, some security experts have warned that Chinese-made vehicles could be used as surveillance tools, or as a source of mass disruption in a crisis.

“The car could be switched off by the manufacturer,” says Richard Dearlove, former head of the British intelligence agency MI6. “How many cars would it take to block circulation of traffic in a major western city?”

“If you take a pragmatic look, a large number of Chinese cars in western cities, if we have a serious deterioration in relations with China, how is China going to exploit that asset built up over time?”

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