The officer recalled a moment when Chinese officials walked out of a meeting with Barbara Woodward, British ambassador to China, in which the Chinese told the Brits the trip was off. When D'Orsi asked if the Queen knew it had been a "testing time," the monarch interjected: "I did." The official tells the Queen that D'Orsi had been "seriously undermined by the Chinese" in the handling of the visit. In the video, an official introduced the queen to D'Orsi and explains that the officer was in charge of policing for the visit. It was the second embarrassment on Tuesday for the palace, where Prime Minister David Cameron was overheard at a separate event describing Nigeria and Afghanistan as "possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world." Information about the remarks was difficult to find on China's heavily censored Internet and government monitors cut the signal of the BBC when it reported on the comments. This effort has been highly recognized by both China and Britain," Lu said.ĭespite Lu's comments, China appeared to regard the queen's comments as sensitive. "The working teams from both sides made huge efforts to make this possible. The incident, recorded by the palace's official cameraman at a palace garden party, captured police Commander Lucy D'Orsi telling the Queen that arranging the state visit by Chinese President Xi in October had been a "testing time."Įlizabeth responded: "They were very rude to the ambassador."Īsked about the queen's remarks at a daily news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang declined to address them directly, but said Xi had made a "very successful visit" to Britain last year. Queen Elizabeth appears with Chinese president Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan at a state banquet at Buckingham Palace last October.