AMERICAN lawmakers are moving to force Chinese-funded language schools to register as “foreign agents” in a row raising new doubts about Scotland’s controversial Confucius Institutes.

US politicians want universities to declare donations and other financial ties with the Communist authorities behind the hubs, which are now monitored by the FBI, amid growing concerns over academic freedom and censorship.

Their proposed crackdown comes as universities in America and elsewhere pull out of funding arrangements with the Chinese body behind the institutes, Hanban.

Scotland has the world’s highest concentration of Confucius Institutes at universities and Confucius Classrooms at schools, language and cultural education facilities with Chinese-trained and supplied teachers.

Edinburgh Zoo earlier this month announced Scotland’s latest Confucius Classroom as part of its wider relationship with China, from which it rents two pandas.

The expansion of Confucius Institutes north of the border has come despite withdrawals from the scheme elsewhere and on-the-record remarks from Hanban that it would expected its teachers to toe the party line on issues like Taiwan.

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Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot-Watt and Aberdeen universities have Confucius Institutes. Strathclyde University hosts a specialist Confucius Institute which provides teachers to schools.

American Congressman Joe Wilson, discussing proposed legislation on Confucius Institutes, told Foreign Policy magazine he wanted details of deals with US universities out in the open.

He said: “The goal is transparency by the foreign agents themselves and also by the universities. The American people need to know that they are being provided propaganda.”

Scottish universities say they have not had problems which prompted similar organisation overseas to break off ties.

Linda Fabiani MSP, of the Scottish Parliament's cross-party group on Tibet has quizzed some academic institutions on their links.

She said: "I know that there has been concern expressed about Confucius Institutes. Our group wrote to our participating Universities here in Scotland. They were very clear that academic freedom was paramount and that they would not accept any censorship of topics."

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A University of Edinburgh spokesman this month said there had been “no loss of academic freedom nor inhibition of academic debate at the University of Edinburgh as a consequence of Hanban’s support for the Confucius Institute”.

Edinburgh is also under fire for awarding an honorary degree to an ally of Vladimir Putin as it obtained funding from the Russian equivalent of Hanban, Russkiy Mir.

John MacDonald, editor of Cable Magazine, Scotland’s specialist foreign policy publication, stressed states had always sought to use soft power in the way Russkiy Mir or Hanban do now. But he added: “The context of this is the increasing confidence with which Russia and China doing so.”

Campaign group Free Tibet has led calls for a rethink of Scotland’s Confucius Institutes.

A campaign spokesman said the US action was “timely and necessary” and stressed there was “little scrutiny” in Scotland. He added: “As Confucius Institutes in US are being urged to disclose their funding as well as the scope of their activities, we urge Scottish educational authorities to be cautious about accepting injections of cash from China given its human rights track record.”

A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman previously said the institutes help mutual understanding and boosted friendship. She told a news agency criticism was outdated ‘noise” .