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A Buckingham Palace aide said that if the British government proposed that King Charles III (King Charles III) visit China, the king would "consider it carefully".
The aide made the remarks to a group of media reporters as King Charles concluded a multi-country tour of the Caribbean and attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) over the weekend.
Not long before the relevant remarks were made, it was the 40th anniversary of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to China in 1986. She is the only British monarch to have ever visited China.
The British government has not yet commented on this statement. A committee of the House of Commons issued a report last week criticizing the current government for "walking along" in its China policy. Andy Burnham has yet to clarify his stance on UK-China relations since taking office as Prime Minister.
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King Charles' visit to China a breakthrough?
During his just-concluded trip to the Caribbean, King Charles visited Guyana and toured The Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda. The three countries are all members of the Commonwealth of Nations (Commonwealth of Nations; Great British Association). The Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda are also members of the Commonwealth realm (Commonwealth realm), with King Charles as the head of state.
The British Press Association (PA) reported that the Buckingham Palace aide was talking about China when commenting on the King's trip.
"If the government said, 'Can the king go to China?' I think we would consider it very carefully," the "senior aide" told reporters traveling with him.
King Charles, 78, is still undergoing treatment for cancer — a diagnosis that royal officials have not disclosed. During his official visit to the United States in April this year, he was praised by the outside world for how he interacted with US President Donald Trump.
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Affected by the situation in Hong Kong, British criticism of China's human rights record, a series of espionage accusations, and the dispute over the construction of the new Chinese Embassy in the UK, relations between London and Beijing have continued to be at a low ebb in recent years.
Agence France-Presse asked the Prime Minister's Office at No. 10 Downing Street whether the Bayend government would request the king to visit China. Its spokesman responded that where the monarch would visit "is determined by Buckingham Palace."
However, whether the king receives foreign heads of state visiting the UK is actually decided "based on the advice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." In the same way, invitations to the king to visit other countries are also handled by the British Foreign Office. The official website of the British royal family clearly introduces this practice, and the Royal Visits Committee, Cabinet Office (Royal Visits Committee, Cabinet Office) is the relevant decision-making entity.
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During his trip to Antigua and Barbuda to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the king described the transatlantic slave trade as a "shameful chapter in history" that he felt "extremely sad" in his opening speech. Prime Minister Benedict also revealed that he was willing to consider a formal apology from the UK.
"I think we are seeing a very clear pattern emerging: the government is asking the king to intervene in some very politically charged and challenging situations," the aide was quoted as saying by AFP.
The British Press Association quoted the senior Buckingham Palace aide as saying: "China is such an important country. It is a very complex country, and we have to deal with many complex factors when making visit plans."
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The visit of the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1986 was the only official visit to China by a reigning British monarch so far. The Queen arrived in Beijing on October 12 of that year and met with Chinese President Li Xiannian, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Zhao Ziyang, and Director of the CPC Central Committee Advisory Committee Deng Xiaoping. The itinerary extended from Beijing to Shanghai and Guangzhou and lasted seven days. After the Queen concluded her visit to China, she immediately visited the then British Hong Kong for two days.
The state visit took place 10 months after the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984, which finalized the transfer of Hong Kong sovereignty from the United Kingdom to China in 1997.
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King Charles' 'complicated relationship' with China
King Charles has never visited China. When then Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited the UK in 1999, and when current Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the UK in 2015, the then Crown Prince, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, did not attend the welcoming state banquet.
Former Buckingham Palace staff member Mark Bolland once described that Prince Charles "deliberately snubbed" China in 1999 because he did not recognize the Chinese Communist regime.
Boland explained that this is because Prince Charles is a loyal supporter of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, and believes that the Dalai Lama is being suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party. China has long accused the Dalai Lama of a long-running conspiracy to split Tibet from China.
When Xi Jinping visited China in 2015, Prince Charles met with him separately.
Boland's account stems from a 2006 invasion of privacy lawsuit brought by Prince Charles against the parent company of The Mail on Sunday for publishing his private diaries. The then-Crown Prince’s legal representative later released the 3,000-word diary, and the parent company of the Mail on Sunday ultimately lost the case.
This diary records the experience of the Crown Prince attending the Hong Kong handover ceremony as the Queen's representative from June 30 to the early morning of July 1, 1997. The crown prince described the handover of Hong Kong as "China's big takeaway" and the Chinese officials attending the ceremony - which included Jiang Zemin and Prime Minister Li Peng - were "terrible old wax figures". One of the ceremonies included a "bad Soviet-style" performance.
However, a senior Buckingham Palace aide who spoke to reporters described King Charles, who remains politically neutral according to constitutional convention, as "willing to face the difficult parts" of his duties and can be a "great secret weapon" for the government.
"Whether it's providing leadership on environmental issues or renewing, rebuilding and re-energizing relationships between countries with complex political issues, that's what he's passionate about and passionate about," the aide said.
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