SNP MP targeted in cyber attack says Scottish universities 'overdependent' on Chinese state funds

dailyrecord.co.uk:

An SNP MP who was targeted in a Chinese state-sponsored attack has said that Scottish universities are "overdependent" on funds from Beijing.

Stewart McDonald said universities have to be prepared for potential future sanctions from China during a press conference in Westminster today.Glasgow and Edinburgh are among several Scottish universities which enrol thousands of Chinese students every year and have strong educational ties with the country.The Glasgow South MP was among a group of MPs who were targeted by China in a cyber-attack at the weekend.He spoke to journalists at a press conference alongside former Tory leader Iain Duncan-Smith and Conservative MP Tim Loughton, who are his fellow members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) pressure group.McDonald had previously said that Scotland was "too dependent" on China and accused Humza Yousaf of failing to "de-risk" his relations with the country.When asked what his message for the First Minister was, McDonald said: "I'll be saying more on de-risking in Scotland in the coming weeks actually but when I say this affects every part of society this is what I mean."So often devolution gets forgotten about.

I'll tell you, they don't forget about it in Moscow or Beijing."They are highly alive to the fact huge swathes of financial and legislative powers don't sit in London."But if I can be critical of the UK Government as well.

They have a 20th century view of what national security is."It's not alive to either the modern way that our institutions of government are set up and the way in which they can be exploited."Take for one example, the issue of universities."Universities right across the UK, but in particular in Scotland, are massively overdependent on