Queen Elizabeth II has been overheard on video calling Chinese officials “very rude” in a conversation with a senior police officer at a Buckingham Palace event.
The comments, made on Tuesday, were unusual because the 90-year-old monarch rarely comments publicly on political matters and media accompanying her are asked not to eavesdrop on private conversations.
The queen’s comments, recorded by the palace’s official cameraman at a palace garden party and distributed to broadcasters, captured Police Commander Lucy D’Orsi telling the queen that arranging the state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in October last year had been a “testing time.”
Photo: Reuters
The queen responded: “They were very rude to the ambassador.”
In the video, an official introduced the queen to D’Orsi and explains that the officer was in charge of policing for the visit. The queen responded: “Oh! Bad luck.”
The official tells the queen that D’Orsi had been “seriously undermined by the Chinese” in the handling of the visit.
When D’Orsi asked if the queen knew it had been a “testing time,” the monarch interjected: “I did.”
The officer recalled a moment when Chinese officials walked out of a meeting with British Ambassador to China Barbara Woodward in which the Chinese told the British the trip was off.
“They walked out on both of us,” D’Orsi said.
“Extraordinary,” the queen said.
“It was very rude and undiplomatic I thought,” D’Orsi said.
Asked about the queen’s remarks at a daily news briefing in Beijing yesterday, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) declined to address them directly, but said Xi had made a “very successful visit” to Britain last year.
“The working teams from both sides made huge efforts to make this possible. This effort has been highly recognized by both China and Britain,” Lu said.
Chinese government monitors cut the signal of the BBC when it reported on the comments.
It was not the first time British royals have been caught making undiplomatic remarks about Chinese officials. Prince Charles branded Chinese diplomats “appalling old waxworks” in a private journal entry that described the 1997 ceremony to hand Hong Kong back to China.
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