Very rude? On the contrary, the Queen was probably just trying to be polite
Kenny Hodgart is amused by the ‘diplomatic incident’ caused by the queen’s off-the-cuff remark over Xi Jinping’s state visit to the UK, likely said out of courtesy
If you didn’t know better, you might have been excused last week for thinking the Global Times had suddenly unearthed a sense of humour.
In a piece only published in its Chinese-language edition, the sister paper of the People’s Daily lambasted the “barbarians” in the British media responsible for reporting on Queen Elizabeth being captured on video describing Chinese officials as “very rude”. “As they experience constant exposure to the 5,000 years of continuous Eastern civilisation, we believe they will make progress [when it comes to manners],” the paper declared, adding a description of British journalists as “‘gossip fiends’... who bare fangs, brandish claws and are very narcissistic”.
British media ‘barbarians’, fumes state-run newspaper, after Queen Elizabeth filmed saying some Chinese officials are ‘very rude’
It is quite probable that some British journalists merit this characterisation. Some may even feel flattered by it. In their narcissism, moreover, they may not have considered how fortunate they are not to be bundled off at airports for crossing their political masters, as happens in China.
Whatever their feelings, though, one must resist the urge to discern satire in the pages of a Communist Party mouthpiece. Indeed, the view expressed by The Global Times rather confirms something we all knew anyway and which the British monarch has exposed afresh: that the Chinese state takes itself rather more seriously than is good for it.
It has been suggested that she might have been more guarded, but for goodness’ sake, the woman is 90 years old and has spent her entire adult life being guarded
