Alex Salmond was given his own talk and opinion show on Russian-backed RT

Russia and China are using Scotland as a back door to influence British policy and destabilise the Union, a foreign affairs expert has claimed.

Authoritarian regimes find a “friendlier ear” in Scotland than London, according to John Hemmings, a director of the Asia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), a foreign policy think tank.

He said that Scottish independence was considered an opportunity to diminish Britain’s power as a key defender of the rules-based system that has guided world trade and international relations since the Second World War.

Mr Hemmings claimed that China’s international academic network of Confucius Institutes are part of a campaign to transform western views of China and suppress debate about issues such as the future of Taiwan and Tibet.