Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said he made a “terrible mistake” after referring to his Chinese wife as Japanese during his first visit to Beijing as foreign secretary.
Mr Hunt made the gaffe at an official meeting with Chinese counterparts which he was hoping to use to boost trade ahead of Britain leaving the EU next year.
He may have hoped that his personal connection to the country through his wife Lucia could help forge strong links with the Beijing government, but that was undermined when he got her nationality wrong.
During a meeting Chinese government figures including foreign minister Wang Yi, he said: “My wife is Japanese – my wife is Chinese. That’s a terrible mistake to make.
“My wife is Chinese and my children are half-Chinese and so we have Chinese grandparents who live in Xi’an and strong family connections in China.”
Mr Hunt married Lucia Guo in 2009 and the couple have three children together.
China and Japan have been rivals for thousands of years and relations between the two remain delicate over Japan’s occupation of the country in the 1930s and 40s.
Before heading off to China, Mr Hunt hailed UK-China relations, saying that the two countries were both “major powers with a global perspective”.
During his visit, he will stress Britain’s commitment to deepening ties post-Brexit between the nations.
He will also discuss North Korea, nuclear weapons and climate change during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing.
Mr Hunt took over the role of foreign secretary following the resignation of Boris Johnson earlier this month.
Mr Johnson is known for his many gaffes during his time in office in which he referred to Africa as a country and recited a colonial-era poem in a Burmese temple.
