Tesla Cars Banned From Chinese Town For Two Months Over Spying Fears 

Chinese officials are set to temporarily ban all Tesla vehicles from entering a coastal resort town over fears of spying ahead of what could be a super-secretive government meeting.

Reuters reports a police official confirmed Teslas entering Beidaihe, a coastal resort town on northeast China’s Bohai Sea, about three hours from Beijing, will be banned on July 1 from entering the city for two months. The decision comes one month after Teslas were restricted from driving in the central city of Chengdu ahead of a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping last month. 

The Beidaihe Traffic Police Brigade official provided no details on why the American vehicles would be banned but said it concerned “national affairs.” The resort town has traditionally been where top Chinese leadership gathers to discuss policy ideas. 

One reason Chinese officials might be concerned about Teslas is that each vehicle is equipped with eight cameras and sensors that provide 360 degrees of visibility at up to 250 meters of range to power Autopilot. The cameras likely pose a threat to national security, but that was not mentioned by the official or Reuters. 

Last year, the People’s Liberation Army restricted Teslas from military bases over spying fears because of the multiple cameras that record and send data back to Tesla to improve its Autopilot. At the time, Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk said the vehicles didn’t spy and had to reroute all the data each vehicle in China collects to a database within the country. 

Despite Chinese Teslas sending their data to domestic data centers, the American vehicles still face heightened scrutiny over spying. Vice versa, Washington has fears Chinese-made drones are spying on US infrastructure and has banned the Department of Defense from purchasing them.