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Spying fears delay British army badges

Jun 17, 2024, 10:36am EDT
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The British military delayed rolling out new cap badges in honor of King Charles III for fear the redesigned insignia may contain Chinese-installed tracking devices.

The British company contracted to make the new badges outsources some manufacturing to China, and a defense official told the Financial Times that “tracking devices or a GPS transmitter could be embedded.”

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Western countries are unsure whether to treat China as “a friendly trading partner or an implacable foe,” the FT said.

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Britain banned the use of Huawei equipment in its new 5G networks in 2021, and espionage fears are not unfounded — two British men were charged with spying for China in April. But one lawmaker said: “To say ‘all China is bad’ is poor policy.”

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