China’s ambassador to the UK told students at British universities to serve ‘the motherland’ and uphold the teachings of the Chinese Communist Party, it has emerged.
Zheng Zeguang was hosted by the Universities of York, Birmingham and Leeds last summer, and told Chinese students to ‘keep in mind’ the words of president Xi Jinping.
It comes after the ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Office this week when it emerged Beijing had launched a cyber attack on MPs.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the events showed universities were ‘in hock’ to the communist state.
He added: ‘If the British Government… sent their ambassador around students in a foreign country to tell them that they should behave like British citizens, it would be considered quite peculiar.’