The British media are riddled with “barbarians” who would benefit from a lesson in manners from China’s ancient civilization, a state-run newspaper said yesterday after Queen Elizabeth II called some Chinese officials “very rude.”
In a rare diplomatic gaffe, the British monarch was caught on camera at a Buckingham Palace garden party making unguarded comments about a state visit last year by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that drummed up billions in Chinese investment.
The remarks made headlines worldwide on Wednesday, but initially they were largely censored in China, blacked out of BBC World transmissions, according to the British broadcaster.
The Global Times newspaper, which is close to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), blamed the British media for blowing the incident out of proportion and fawning over the footage as if it was “the most precious treasure.”
“The West in modern times has risen to the top and created a brilliant civilization, but their media is full of reckless ‘gossip fiends’ who bare their fangs and brandish their claws and are very narcissistic, retaining the bad manners of ‘barbarians,’” the paper said in an editorial.
“As they experience constant exposure to the 5,000 years of continuous Eastern civilization, we believe they will make progress” when it comes to manners, it added in the Chinese-language piece, which was not published in English.
London and Beijing have both proclaimed a new “golden era” of relations between the former imperial power — whose forces repeatedly invaded China in the 19th century — and the rising Asian giant, now the world’s second-largest economy.
Xi’s trip in October saw a clutch of contracts announced, which Cameron said were worth almost US$58 billion.
At the time, the overseas edition of the People’s Daily, the CCP’s official mouthpiece, breathlessly portrayed the visit as the start of a beautiful friendship.
However, in her recorded comments, the Queen commiserated with a police commander for her “bad luck” in having to oversee security for Xi and his wife.
Members of the Chinese delegation “were very rude to the ambassador,” the monarch said, exclaiming: “Extraordinary.”
A columnist at Chinese Web site “Today’s Headlines” recalled visible mutual discomfort during the three-day sojourn, describing it as “thought-provoking awkwardness” and adding it “primarily arose out of cultural and political differences.”
“Even among Western countries, Britain is most frequently ‘caught with its pants down’ and ‘exposing itself,’” the Global Times editorial said.
However, it added that it would be “unthinkable” for British authorities to have deliberately leaked the royal footage, as “if they had deliberately done so, that would have been truly crude and rude.”
The paper shrugged off the Queen’s comments themselves as “not a big deal,” stating: “Chinese diplomats surely also scoff at British bureaucrats in private.”
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