The Prince of Wales is opting not to attend next week’s State Banquet honouring Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Clarence House did not provide any reason as to why Prince Charles will not attend besides the following: “The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall have significant involvement in the State Visit by The President of The People’s Republic of China.” The various engagements both Charles and The Duchess of Cornwall will attend were listed.
The Prince of Wales is standing firm in his beliefs and not attending the State Banquet when the Chinese President and his wife visit London.
As reported by Royal Central on Wednesday, Charles and Camilla will greet President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. They will then travel to Horse Guards Parade, where the President will receive the official Ceremonial welcome.
Charles has not been silent in the past about China especially with his support for Tibet and The Dalai Lama, who is a friend of the royal.
In 2008, Charles and his wife welcomed His Holiness The Dalai Lama to Clarence House. During the visit exiled spiritual leader planted a magnolia sapling.
The Prince of Wales got himself into a bit of a public relations kerfuffle during the Hong Kong handover ceremony in 1997. In his diary entry, leaked to The Daily Mail, Charles noted the Chinese officials were “appalling old waxworks” and described one ceremony as an “awful Soviet-style” performance.
Prince Charles has ignored the Chinese in the past. He did not attend the 1999 banquet given at the Chinese Embassy in London honouring Her Majesty.
Adamant in his beliefs, he boycotted the dinner in 2005 during the visit by President Hu Jintao and in 2008 did not make the trip to Beijing to attend the Summer Olympic Games.
Comments regarding Charles, not attending are varied on social media. Many, including myself, agree, he is in his right to take a stand for what he believes in, even if it means not attending the white tie and tiara event at Buckingham Palace. When he becomes king, such opportunities will be fewer and far between.
Photo Credit: European Parliament via Flickr
Disappointed in Charles. He better work on his diplomatic skills if he wants to be a globally accepted king.
He has a thing or two to learn from the “diplomatic” American Democratic Party administration.
Принц Чарльз – это не Путин и Медведев в одном флаконе.
Yes, a lot of visitors to this website read Russian.
Some of the more resourceful visitors to this page, can use google translate.
:”Prince Charles – it’s not Putin and Medvedev in a bottle”
I suspect something has been lost in the translation though.
Knowing the Chinese, they’ll remember this slight and will pay it back 2 folds when the time is right.
Chapeaux – H.R.H. Prince Charles seemed to be the only who has backbone – others talk of democratie, human rights but running after money only.
Hey our President Obama would do the same . . . okay, maybe not. But he would whisper to the Chinese president “please, maybe you can treat the Tibetans a little bit better. Please, sir.”
Good for him. He is going to be meeting with them at other times during this visit and I’m sure he has talked this over with the Queen.
Good for him for taking a stand in view of what I am sure are great pressures to comply. A true mark of the man which deserves respect.
A very brave and firm move. For Chinese information, HRH is son of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and heir of the Crown.
I am amused to see strong support for this political stand, particularly among those who argue that the monarchy’s value is its supposed impartiality.