The Chinese government and Buckingham Palace said last year’s first state visit to the U.K. by President Xi Jinping had been successful, following comments by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II captured on camera that Chinese officials had been “very rude.”

In a video distributed by Buckingham Palace, the queen is introduced at a palace garden party Tuesday to Metropolitan Police Commander Lucy D’Orsi, who oversaw security operations during Mr. Xi’s visit in October. “Oh, bad luck,” says the queen to Ms. D’Orsi, who goes on to describe Chinese officials storming out of a meeting with the British ambassador.

“They were very rude to the ambassador,” the queen replied, calling the episode extraordinary.

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Her comments came after U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron was also caught on camera Tuesday telling the queen at an event at Buckingham palace to celebrate the monarch’s 90th birthday that “leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries” were coming to Britain to an anticorruption conference he is hosting. He added that Nigeria and Afghanistan were “possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world.”

A Downing Street spokeswoman on Wednesday said: “Both President Buhari of Nigeria and President Ghani of Afghanistan have acknowledged the scale of the corruption challenge they face in their countries” and that both leaders have been invited to the summit “because they are driving the fight against corruption in their countries.”

“This is embarrassing to us, to say the least, given the good work that the president is doing”, said Garba Shehu, spokesman for Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, in a post on the presidential Facebook page. “The Prime Minister must be looking at an old snapshot of Nigeria. Things are changing with corruption and everything else, ”‎ he added.


A representative for Afghanistan’s government couldn’t immediately be reached.


U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron called Nigeria and Afghanistan “fantastically corrupt” nations while attending a reception for the Queen’s 90th birthday. Photo: Getty Images
The queen’s comments were a rare departure from the U.K.’s official hesitance to criticize China, even as relations have been strained by recent incidents including the case of a bookseller with U.K. citizenship believed by the British government to have been “involuntarily removed to the mainland” from Hong Kong.

The U.K. has been eager to forge stronger trade and investment ties with the world’s second-largest economy, while China views a closer relationship with Britain as a key step on its march toward becoming a global power. Ahead of the Chinese president’s visit officials on both sides declared with much fanfare that China-U. K. relations had entered the “golden era.”

At the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s regular news briefing on Wednesday, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang fielded repeated questions about the incident.

“President Xi’s visit to the U.K. last year was a very successful one,” Mr. Lu said. “The visit by President Xi ushered in the golden era for the development of the bilateral relationship. Both sides spoke highly of that.” He declined to say whether Beijing had been in touch with British officials regarding the comments—or whether there had been any dust-up at all.

The British Embassy in Beijing declined to comment beyond a statement released by Buckingham Palace. “We do not comment on the queen’s private conversations. However the Chinese State Visit was extremely successful and all parties worked closely to ensure it proceeded smoothly,” the palace said.

Meanwhile, some Nigerian political leaders took issue with Mr. Cameron’s remarks. “Mr. Cameron should also be reminded that the Britain colonized Nigeria and during that period, lots of things were bastardized by the British,” said Nigerian Sen. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, spokesman for the legislative body.

Others in Nigeria, where corruption has been a central political issue, supported Mr. Cameron’s comments. “I agree with the statement of the British prime minister,” said Bukar Abba Ibrahim, a senator with the ruling All Progressives Congress party. “In fact, the statement is very, very right.”

http://www.wsj.com/articles/britains-queen-elizabeth-ii-filmed-calling-chinese-officials-very-rude-1462963502#


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