Chinese President Xi Jinping offers condolences to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth after death of Prince Philip
- Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan visited Buckingham Palace in 2015 where they had lunch with the Duke of Edinburgh and the British monarch
- Chinese social media users also offer tributes to the prince, although some also remember his infamous gaffe during a 1986 state visit
Xi and Peng “expressed their deep condolences” and extended “sincere sympathy” to the queen and her family, according to the official news agency Xinhua.
The Duke of Edinburgh died aged 99 at Windsor Castle on Friday after being discharged from a hospital in London the previous month.
Xi and Peng had visited Buckingham Palace during their state visit to Britain in 2015, where they had lunch with the queen and Philip and viewed artworks from the Royal Collection before attending a state banquet.
Many Chinese social media users also paid tribute to the duke, with some wishing the 95-year-old queen good health.
Queen Elizabeth was the first ruling British monarch to enter mainland China, making a six-day state visit with Prince Philip in 1986, two years after the two countries signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration to return Hong Kong to Chinese rule.
In 2017, the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed that the Joint Declaration, which supposedly guaranteed Hong Kong’s freedoms for 50 years under the “one country, two systems” principle – was a “historical document that no longer had any practical significance”.
In 1986, the royal couple spent three days sightseeing in Beijing, visiting the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and the tombs of Ming emperors. The royal couple also visited Shanghai, Xian, Kunming, and Guangzhou.
During the couple’s visit to Huakeng village in Guangzhou, Prince Philip posed for a photograph with a buffalo and “kindly” asked the villagers its name, according to Shanghai-based media Eastday.
However, social media users also brought up his offensive comments during the visit, when he told a group of British students: “If you stay here much longer, you’ll all be slitty-eyed.”
The comment caused little controversy in China in 1986, a time before the internet and the rise of nationalist sentiment.
But it caused a furore in Britain, with The Sun newspaper headlining its front page “Philip gets it all Wong” and the Daily Mirror going with “The Great Wally of China”.
