By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, October 16: The Prince of Wales has decided to skip the state banquet next week at the Buckingham Palace organized by Queen Elizabeth II in honor of the Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan.
However, Britain’s next hereditary head of state will hold “one-to-one talks” with the President, said Clarence House, the office of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall.
The office also added that the Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall have significant involvement in the state visit, which begins on October 20. They are to meet Xi and Peng at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and will be part of the official ceremonial welcome at the Horse Guards Parade.
Charles has a complex relationship with China. He did not attend a banquet hosted for then Chinese President in 1991, Jiang Zemin.
Charles is a friend and supporter of the exiled Tibetan leader, whom China reviles as ‘a separatist’. Mark Bolland, a former Private secretary to Charles told in a court statement in 2006 that this was a “deliberate snub” because he didn’t approve of the Chinese regime and because he was a great supporter of the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama whom he viewed as being oppressed by the Chinese.
He had also boycotted the dinner in 2005 during the visit by then President Hu Jintao and in 2008 did not to attend the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games held in Beijing.
Charles had invited His Holiness The Dalai Lama to Clarence House in 2008.
His discontent towards China was made public when his diary entry leaked in the press, where he described Chinese leaders as “appalling old waxworks” during the 1997 transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from Britain to China and described the ceremony as an “awful Soviet-style” performance.
The visit by Xi comes as Britain strives to strengthen ties with Beijing and build business links with the world’s second-largest economy.
