Chinese students contribute almost a third of fee income at Scottish universities which host cultural programmes that have been described as an extension of the government in Beijing.
In recent years China’s communist government has also provided more than £3 million to place Confucius Institutes, which promote Chinese culture, in Scottish schools.
Students from China paid a combined £245 million in university fees last year at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Strathclyde and Heriot-Watt. The total fee income was £790 million. This 31 per cent share compares with 7 per cent of income at Scottish universities that do not host the institutes.
The programmes, which began in 2004 to promote Chinese language and culture, face expulsion from English universities under legislation that was debated at Westminster last