Bad Fortune Crookies: Chinese Electric Buses Get Busted

So, Bingley sent me a story on Tuesday, and we touched on this briefly in the comments on the Montgomery County Public School system scandal yesterday. So, here I am to keep my promise to fill you all in.

The temerity of the Chinese and their underhanded skullduggery at every turn never ceases to amaze me, but none of it is new. And none of it should ever be a surprise or unexpected to anyone who buys anything built of Chinese technology. Just like you can damn near guarantee every native born Chinese student in a university here is a card-carrying CCP member with a role to play, you can do the same for every electronic piece of gear that comes out of the regime.

Everything from your TV remote to your city electric bus is constantly gathering information, and, if it’s a big enough piece of gear, it might have a few extra bells and whistles built in for extra measure. Not for your benefit – for Chairman Xi’s.

This is what the Norwegians found recently to their great alarm and sudden consternation when they took delivery of some Chinese-manufactured electric buses, made by the Yutong company. A security check uncovered something they hadn’t been expecting.

A quiet security check in Norway has suddenly sparked concern across Europe. Dozens of Chinese-made electric buses were meant to push cities toward cleaner transport, until a troubling tech discovery changed everything.

…Norway’s capital, Oslo, had rolled out hundreds of Chinese Yutong electric buses as part of its clean-energy transition. But routine security testing uncovered something no one expected: the buses could reportedly be accessed remotely from China, raising fears that the manufacturer could disable them in seconds, as per a report by Supercar Blondie.

VURT DA FURK?

…The finding forced Norway’s public transport authority, Ruter, to make a drastic move. Officials removed the SIM cards from the buses, a fix that blocks any potential interference but also prevents software updates that keep the vehicles running smoothly. The sudden discovery left authorities stunned, and other nations quickly took notice, as per a report by Supercar Blondie.

Well, hang on there, said the Danes. We bought a buttload of those, too!

TROJAN HORSE

“Denmark is taking urgent action with its 262 Chinese buses after Norwegian city made startling discovery while testing them”

These Chinese buses could be accessed remotely from the manufacturer’s HQ in China.
Effectively, Yutong could shut the entire fleet down… pic.twitter.com/dol2JUwMNg

— Jim Weed (@JimBobW49) November 7, 2025

And off they went, crawling through the vital electronic innards of their green urban Goliaths to find the implanted parasites.

Danish authorities in rush to close security loophole in Chinese electric buses

Authorities in Denmark are urgently studying how to close an apparent security loophole in hundreds of Chinese-made electric buses that enables them to be remotely deactivated.

The investigation comes after transport authorities in Norway, where the Yutong buses are also in service, found that the Chinese supplier had remote access for software updates and diagnostics to the vehicles’ control systems – which could be exploited to affect buses while in transit.

Amid concerns over potential security risks, the Norwegian public transport authority Ruter decided to test two electric buses in an isolated environment.

It was during the independent testing of those two buses that the Norwegians discovered their fix created even more problems.

The Norwegians began to rethink removing the SIM cards because, while it negated the remote deactivation threat, it also removed that particular bus from the network to which it was connected.

This presents a huge problem in a massive, automated city transit monitoring system.

The scale of the problem in Denmark has authorities there squawking that, since they can’t fix what they’ve already bought, they need to have better security in place for the next shipment of buses.

Now, this may be my natural American contraryness surfacing, but I honestly feel like that’s a ‘barn door after the horse is out’ approach.

…Ruter said it planned to bring in stricter security requirements for future procurements. Jenssen said it must act before the arrival of the next generation of buses, which could be even “more integrated and harder to secure”.

Movia, Denmark’s largest public transport company, has 469 Chinese electric buses in operation – 262 of which were manufactured by Yutong.

Jeppe Gaard, Movia’s chief operating officer, said he was last week made aware that “electric buses – like electric cars – can be remotely deactivated if their software systems have web access”. He added: “This is not a Chinese bus problem. It is a problem for all types of vehicles and devices with Chinese electronics built in.”

But I guess when you’ve dedicated so much time, energy, and national treasure to the climate gods, it’s too hard to say, ‘No. We’re not taking any more of your damn booby trapped spy buses.’ Like burning your hand on a hot stove and compromising by only holding a finger on it at a time from that point forward.

It makes no sense at all.

There was one fellow they found who had a little common sense about the situation, but no one there was listening, thanks to the terminal Green fever dream they’ve all been suffering from.

…Thomas Rohden, the chair of the Danish China-Critical Society and a regional Social Liberal party councillor, said Denmark has been “way too slow” when it came to dependence on Chinese companies.

“This is a huge problem. We should not be so dependent on a country that has values and ideals so different to Denmark,” Rohden said. He added that at a time when Denmark was trying to increase its resilience amid allegations of hybrid attacks by Russia “it’s not very resilient to be totally dependent on China”.

It’s not just the continent that’s green crazy, either, you know.

The United Kingdom’s Climate Cult Chief Prophet is now having himself a moment as another one of his remarkably expensive green transition mandates turns into a national security ‘nightmare.’

WHODA THUNK IT?

Ed Miliband even had the Chinese company making the ubiquitous double-decker London bus in an electric version.

It sounds like a Hollywood action blockbuster, possibly starring Bruce Willis, Keanu Reeves or Jason Statham: bleary-eyed commuters heading to work on the bus are plunged into a real-life nightmare when it is commandeered by evil Chinese technicians under the orders of Beijing.

Except rather than just some silly film script, it is the sort of terrifying scenario that could one day occur in this country after so-called “kill switches” were found on Chinese buses flooding Europe – including the UK.

The alarming discovery was made by Oslo’s transport operator Ruter after engineers looked under the bonnet of hundreds of electric buses bought from the Chinese manufacturer Yutong.

The detection of software that allowed it to be “stopped or rendered inoperable” remotely by its manufacturer has massive ramifications, not just for our own transport system, but Ed Miliband’s blind pursuit of net zero.

There are approximately 700 Yutong buses whizzing around Britain’s roads, mainly in Glasgow, Nottingham and south Wales. Yutong has also developed a double-decker electric bus to operate in the capital.

For its part, Yutong denies any evil intentions or culpability.

WHACHOO TALKIN’ ABOUT, WILLIS?

That SIM card, the Chinese company said, is purely for software updates, diagnostics, and the like.

But what the Ruter in Norway found when they started tearing things apart and tracing networks back was hardly so benign, and the extent of what they found has caused the initiation of a nationwide review of Chinese-made components in critical systems.

MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY

…However, Ruter’s independent analysis told a different story.

Investigators traced the SIM card’s network connections and found that the communication port could allow outside parties to remotely access the buses’ operating systems. This raised serious concerns that the manufacturer, or even a third party, could disable all buses simultaneously, extract sensitive operational data, or manipulate critical systems.

Ruter CEO Bernt Reitan Jenssen called the discovery a wake-up call in an interview with local media. He said that concerns about Chinese infrastructure now have concrete evidence to support them. The company immediately disconnected the SIM cards and cut all network links to eliminate the potential threat.

The Norwegian government is taking the issue seriously. Following Ruter’s report, the Ministry of Transport announced a nationwide review of supply chain security across transportation infrastructure. The investigation will assess the use of foreign-made components in critical systems, including buses, railways, and ports, with a focus on potential national security implications.

Again, there’s the cost not only in dollars, pounds, or euros, but also in national security versus the return, and the very real danger that must be considered.

…The fact that a foreign manufacturer could potentially control the ignition systems of 850 buses in the center of a nation’s capital exposes a serious security gap. Norway’s experience serves as a powerful warning to other nations about the dangers of trading control over critical infrastructure for short-term gains.

And the very real possibility that national security concerns will be completely discarded in the calculus by these true believers, whose myopic focus only ever sees one goal.

They don’t have to be imported to be Chinese and have the exact same nosy gremlins, either.

The House Homeland Security Committee has launched a formal investigation into BYD, the Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer that overtook Tesla in global EV sales last year.

The committee, according to Bloomberg, has requested that BYD submit a wide range of internal documents to examine whether the company’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party is a threat to US national security.

The letter, sent directly to Stella Li, head of BYD’s US operations, and Patrick Duan, the co-CEO, calls for a full breakdown of the company’s structure, cybersecurity protocols, and its American activities.

Lawmakers are focused on BYD’s presence in the electric bus market, especially as its vehicles continue to operate in multiple American public transportation systems.

The committee described the growing use of these buses as a potential channel for foreign data exposure, surveillance, and backdoor access to US networks, said Bloomberg.

What are they looking for?

“Chinese automaker and Apple Inc. supplier BYD is being asked to turn over its books to the House Homeland Security Committee.”

BYD has been assembling electric buses in Lancaster California since 2012. pic.twitter.com/f0nJAflXaQ

— Michael Dunne (@dunne_insights) May 25, 2025

Of course, BYD is in California. 

Gavin Newsom is in China linking up with the Chinese company he gave a $1 billion taxpayer funded contract to for face masks during COVID. https://t.co/NNoDkR0ni4

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) October 24, 2023

True believers.

There are busloads of them.

The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its globalist agenda.

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