King Charles to ‘carefully’ consider a China visit

A British monarch has only ever made one state visit to China: Queen Elizabeth II four decades ago. King Charles III would consider undertaking the second, an aide has said.

“If the government said, ‘Will the king go to China?’ I think, you know we think about it very carefully,” a senior palace aide told reporters this week.

The late queen, Charles’ mother, visited China with her husband, Prince Philip, in October 1986.

Britain’s King Charles III waves alongside Queen Camilla as they depart from The Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance event at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Friday.

Photo: AFP

It came two years after the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration setting out the terms for the return of Hong Kong, which improved relations between the two countries.

“This is the 40th anniversary of the last state visit,” the aide said, speaking at the end of the king’s nine-day tour of the Caribbean.

Charles’s trip was dominated by the thorny subject of slavery reparations. He called the transatlantic slave trade a “monstrous injustice” as the UK government mulls an apology.

“I think what we’re seeing is a very clear pattern emerging of the government asking the king to head into quite politically charged situations, quite challenging situations,” the aide said.

The king, who is politically neutral, “relishes” the “tough parts” of his role and can be a “great secret weapon” for the government, the aide added.

Charles, who is nearly 78 and still being treated for an undisclosed cancer, was widely praised for his state visit to the US and delicate handling of US President Donald Trump earlier this year.

Relations between London and Beijing have been strained for years, fueled in part by tensions over the political situation in former British colony Hong Kong, criticism of Beijing’s human rights record and spying allegations.

However, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is pursuing the same policy of cautious rapprochement started by his predecessor Keir Starmer, who visited Beijing in January.

“China is a hugely important country. It’s a very complex country. It would pose you know a lot of complexity in putting a program together,” Charles’ aide said.

As then prince of Wales, Charles oversaw Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule as Britain’s most senior representative at the 1997 handover alongside then-Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民).

Asked whether Burnham would be asking the king to visit China, his spokesman said that questions about the monarch’s travel was “one for the palace.”