BYD vehicles will be barred from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa from Monday, October 26. The US military said the Chinese automaker’s cars pose a security risk to one of its most important installations in the Asia-Pacific.
“These vehicles present an unacceptable and unmitigable risk to our personnel and our mission,” Kadena Air Base spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Alli Stormer told Reuters on Friday.
Stormer did not specify the concern that prompted the base commander to act.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency first reported the measure. Citing US military officials stationed in Japan, Yonhap said the concern is that cameras and sensors on BYD vehicles could collect and leak sensitive information about the base.
The US military has not said that any BYD vehicle has collected data at Kadena. Korean outlets described the measure as preventive.
Taxis and contractors included
The ban covers every BYD vehicle at every gate, according to Yonhap. That includes privately owned cars, contractor vehicles, taxis, delivery trucks and commercial vehicles, with no exceptions.
The 18th Security Forces Squadron, which handles base security and traffic control, will turn BYD vehicles away at the entrances and direct them to leave, Korean broadcaster SBS reported.
Kadena is home to the US Air Force’s 18th Wing and sits on Japan’s southwest island chain, at the edge of the East China Sea. The base describes its 18th Wing as “the largest operational combat wing overseas” and itself as sitting on “the largest U.S. installation in the Asia-Pacific region.”
The ban comes weeks after Japan’s Defense Ministry said the US Army would begin storing its Typhon mid-range missile system and HIMARS rocket launchers at Kadena from mid-October.
Typhon can fire SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles. The town of Kadena objected to the weapons being stored within its borders.
BYD did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
No change yet in Korea
Korean media reported that the restriction could spread to other major US bases in Japan, such as Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, also on Okinawa, and to US Forces Korea. No decision beyond Kadena has been announced.
US Forces Korea said on Friday it has made no changes to its policies on Chinese vehicles entering its installations.
“We have nothing to announce regarding potential changes to installation access policies at this time,” US Forces Korea told The Korea Times. “Any changes to installation access policies will be communicated through appropriate channels.”
The issue is already live in South Korea. Data obtained by Democratic Party Representative Kim Byung-joo showed 135 Chinese-made connected cars registered with the country’s armed forces, while unregistered ones entered Navy facilities at least 565 times this year, Korea JoongAng Daily reported on October 7.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it is “reviewing standards on how to handle access by connected cars themselves, including Chinese-made ones.”
The Pentagon listing
The ban follows the Pentagon’s June 8 update of its 1260H list of companies it says support China’s military. The update added 65 entities, including BYD, Nio, battery makers CALB and EVE Energy, Alibaba and Baidu.
BYD rejected the designation and said it would pursue administrative and legal avenues to protect its interests.
Inclusion on the list carries procurement consequences. From June 30, 2026, the Pentagon is barred from entering into, renewing or extending contracts with listed companies. A wider ban on goods and services produced or developed by listed entities takes effect on June 30, 2027.
The Kadena order is a separate step. It does not concern purchases. It decides which vehicles may physically enter a US military installation abroad.
BYD’s US exposure was already limited. Chinese-brand passenger cars are effectively shut out of the US market by a 100% tariff and by a Commerce Department rule that bars Chinese connected-vehicle software from model year 2027 and hardware from model year 2030.
The Senate Commerce Committee advanced the Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 on July 22. The bipartisan bill from Senators Bernie Moreno and Elissa Slotkin would write that rule into law.
Washington’s debate over Chinese automakers has intensified in recent weeks. BYD and Xiaomi leaders arrived in Washington in September during US-China talks, while US carmakers and lawmakers urged President Donald Trump to keep Chinese brands out.
Other militaries moved first
Kadena is not the first military facility to restrict Chinese cars over data concerns.
The Israel Defense Forces began collecting about 700 Chinese-made vehicles from officers in November 2025, on the chief of staff’s orders, after a security assessment found a risk of information leaks through onboard systems. Most were Chery models, and the step built on an earlier ban on such cars at IDF bases.
Poland’s military barred Chinese-made vehicles from certain military facilities in February 2026.
It said “vehicles produced in China may be using onboard sensors and cameras to collect sensitive data.” Such cars may enter only after specific functions are disabled, and personnel may not connect government phones to their infotainment systems.
In the UK, staff at RAF Wyton were told in 2025 to park electric vehicles made in China or carrying Chinese components at least two miles from key buildings, The i Paper reported. The Ministry of Defence told Parliament there are “no centrally mandated policy restrictions on the movement of Chinese manufactured vehicles.”
The Pentagon itself pulled Huawei and ZTE phones from stores on US bases worldwide in 2018.
China has applied the same logic in reverse. In 2021, it barred Tesla vehicles from some government compounds over concerns about their cameras. Beijing lifted the restriction in 2024 after Tesla won an endorsement from the country’s top car industry association.
A growing market for BYD
The ban lands as BYD pushes into Japan, a market dominated by domestic brands. BYD launched the Racco, an electric kei car developed for Japan and its first model developed exclusively for an overseas market, in July.
The Racco is priced from about 2.5 million yen ($15,900), close to Nissan’s Sakura. BYD’s Japan expansion has relied on Japan-specific models and new stores, mainly in regional residential areas with limited public transit.
Subsidies have worked against it. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry cut BYD’s per-vehicle incentive to a flat 150,000 yen ($960) from April 1, after revising its Clean Energy Vehicle framework to favor locally made batteries and supply chains.
BYD opened its first showroom in Okinawa, on Kokusai-dori in the prefectural capital Naha, in March 2023.
The company overtook Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of fully electric vehicles in 2025. It reports third-quarter results on October 29.
BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares closed 6.2% higher at HK$71.60 on Friday.
