Queen Elizabeth II Says Chinese Officials Were ‘Very Rude’ on State Visit
By EDWARD WONG

BEIJING — British garden parties are not known as occasions for blunt talk, especially if they take place at Buckingham Palace.

But on Tuesday, Queen Elizabeth II, clad in bright pink, had a frank exchange about China on her palace lawn with a Metropolitan Police commander, Lucy D’Orsi. They spoke of conflicts that unfolded in London in October when President Xi Jinping of China and his entourage made a state visit to Britain, and at one point, the queen referred to the visiting officials as “very rude.”

A transcript of that exchange is below.

First, before hundreds of onlookers, the queen, 90, was introduced to Ms. D’Orsi by the Lord Chamberlain, Earl Peel, who serves as head of the royal household.

Ms. D’Orsi spoke of an episode in which Chinese officials stormed out of a meeting with her and Barbara Woodward, a longtime diplomat and the British ambassador to China. She called it “a testing time.” The queen commented, “They were very rude to the ambassador.”

The remarks were included in a video of the party that a longtime palace-approved cameraman recorded for news organizations. The video was officially distributed to journalists and has been posted online.

The BBC reported that there had been no official reaction from the Chinese authorities, but that coverage had been censored, with BBC World TV blocked in China during its report of the conversation.

The British and Chinese governments have spoken of a new “golden era” of relations between the two countries. Mr. Xi’s state visit was supposed to symbolize the strengthening of ties, especially commercial ones. Mr. Xi posed for press photos with Prime Minister David Cameron at a pub in Buckinghamshire, England. The two men held pints of beer up to their lips.

On Wednesday, Western journalists attending a regularly scheduled Ministry of Foreign Affairs news conference in Beijing asked a spokesman about the queen’s comments.

The spokesman, Lu Kang, said that Mr. Xi’s visit to Britain had been “extremely successful” and that it had “launched a golden era” in relations. He also said he did not know of any threats by Chinese officials to cancel the trip.

In June 2014, Premier Li Keqiang met with the queen at Windsor Castle. The Times of London had reported earlier from Beijing that Mr. Li and fellow Chinese officials had threatened to cancel his three-day visit to Britain if he did not get an audience with the queen. “The Chinese are hard negotiators,” an unnamed British government source told the newspaper.

In 2005, Prince Charles sued The Mail on Sunday for publishing a private journal he had written eight years earlier that included candid remarks about Chinese leaders. He was writing about the British handover of Hong Kong to China, and he described senior Chinese officials accompanying President Jiang Zemin to the ceremony in 1997 as “appalling old waxworks.”

Here is the transcript of the conversation on Tuesday:

Lord Chamberlain: “Can I present Commander Lucy D’Orsi, who was Gold Commander during the Chinese state visit…”

Queen Elizabeth: “Oh, bad luck.”

Lord Chamberlain: “… and who was seriously, seriously undermined by the Chinese, but she managed to hold her own and remain in command. And her mother, Judith, who’s involved in child protection and social work.”

Commander D’Orsi’s mother: “Yes, I’m very proud of my daughter.”

Lord Chamberlain: “You must tell your story.”

Commander D’Orsi: “Yes, I was the Gold Commander, so I’m not sure whether you knew, but it was quite a testing time for me.”

Queen: “Yes, I did.”

Commander D’Orsi: “It was, er, I think at the point that they walked out of Lancaster House and told me that the trip was off, I felt that…”

The Queen: “They were very rude to the ambassador.”

Commander D’Orsi: “They were. Well, she was, yes, Barbara, she was with me and they walked out on both of us.”

The Queen: “Extraordinary.”

Commander D’Orsi’s mother: “I know, it’s unbelievable.”

Commander D’Orsi: “It was very rude and very undiplomatic, I thought.”

英女王批陸官員「無禮」 全都錄

一向謹言慎行的英國女王伊麗莎白二世十日被錄到一段不合外交禮節的對話，她在白金漢宮花園出席慶祝女王九十大壽的花園派對時，與倫敦警察廳指揮官露西．杜奧西交談，被御用攝影師錄下女王私下抱怨去年中國大陸國家主席習近平伉儷國是訪問期間，中國官員對英國駐北京大使吳百納「很無禮」（very rude）。

英國媒體報導，女王出席花園派對時，宮務大臣皮爾向她介紹倫敦警察廳指揮官露西．杜奧西（Lucy D'Orsi）。杜奧西在習近平伉儷訪英期間負責維安。三人的對話被御用攝影師錄下，傳送到全英國的電視台播放。

女王：噢！真倒楣…

他們的對話如下：

皮爾：向陛下介紹杜奧西指揮官，她是中國國是訪問的總指揮官。

女王：噢！真倒楣！（Oh, bad luck.）

皮爾：她被中國人整得非常、非常慘，但她勉力把持住自己，盡了指揮官的職責。

皮爾：你一定要說你的故事。

杜奧西：是的，我是總指揮官，我不太確定您是否知道，那段時間對我是很大的考驗。

女王：是啊，我知道。

杜奧西：他們憤而離開蘭卡斯特宮，告訴我這趟行程告吹的當下，我覺得我做錯了什麼…。

女王：他們對大使非常無禮（very rude）。

杜奧西：他們是如此，當時我與芭芭拉（Barbara Woodward，英國駐北京大使吳百納）在一起，他們丟下我們兩個人。

女王：很驚人（extraordinary）。

杜奧西：很失禮，而且很不合外交禮節，我認為。

針對這段影片，白金漢宮發言人表示：「我們不評論女王的私下談話，不過中國國是訪問非常成功，各方都密切合作確保順利進行。」

英國廣播公司（BBC）對這件事的報導在大陸被刪除。而就在十日當天稍早，英國首相卡麥隆也在外交上出包。他向女王談到十二日在倫敦舉行的反貪腐高峰會，卡麥隆被錄到對女王說：「有些非常腐敗的國家領袖要到英國來。奈及利亞與阿富汗可能是世上兩個最腐敗的國家。」奈及利亞總統布哈里和阿富汗總統賈尼都將出席反貪腐高峰會。英國一向以外交見長，首相和女王接連出包很不尋常。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/world/asia/china-britain-queen-xi-jinping.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20160511/c11chinaengland/zh-hant/

Video：Queen Elizabeth on Chinese State Visit
Queen Elizabeth II was filmed saying that Chinese officials were “very rude” during President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Britain last year.
http://nyti.ms/27cW55w

2016-05-12．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯田思怡