Charles snubs Chinese president

(The Daily Telegraph, 22 October 1999)

THE Prince of Wales showed his contempt for China's human rights record by boycotting last night's Chinese state banquet in honour of the Queen and refusing to accompany President Jiang Zemin on engagements during his state visit.

His absence was an embarrassment for the Foreign Office and, while it will be welcomed by civil rights groups, will cause new tensions between St James's Palace and the Government.

The Prince's decision was motivated by his admiration for the Dalai Lama, whom he has met at least twice in defiance of Government policy. The Telegraph has learned that the exiled Tibetan leader paid a private visit to the Prince at Highgrove five months ago.

The royal protest contrasted with the bonhomie between Mr Jiang and Tony Blair. After wide-ranging talks and lunch at No 10 attended by ministers and leading businessmen, including Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, a Downing Street spokesman said: "We do believe there is a new chapter in our relations with China."

The subject of human rights was raised during the talks and also during Mr Jiang's separate meetings with opposition leaders. Civil rights groups, however, continued to accuse the Government of shielding Mr Jiang from legitimate democratic protest.

Officially, the Prince declined President Jiang's invitation because he had a "private engagement", but his refusal to attend the banquet at the Chinese embassy was a notable break with protocol. While the Queen, Prince Philip, the Duke of York, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra and Sir Angus Ogilvy were all there, the Prince was dining with a few friends at St James's Palace.

The Queen, wearing an ivory evening gown, arrived at the embassy at 7.30pm as a few hundred protesters demonstrated on the other side of the road. State visitors always hold a "return banquet" for the Queen at the end of their stay as a mark of gratitude for the state banquet which they receive at the start. If the Prince is in the country, as heir to the throne he is expected to attend.

In recent years he has been present at all return banquets, among them those given by the Emperor of Japan and the presidents of France, Germany, South Africa, Hungary and Brazil. He missed the president of Israel's banquet in 1997 because he was on a tour of Bangladesh.

The Prince's decision to snub a head of state of the stature of President Jiang is a measure of his concern for China's conduct in Tibet and the plight of the Dalai Lama. The one encounter between the Prince and President Jiang took place at Tuesday's state banquet given by the Queen. It is understood that he attended that event because it would have been discourteous to the Queen, as hostess, to stay away. A friend said: "He wanted nothing more to do with this visit."

The Prince has played an increasingly active role during state visits, often taking heads of state to see innovations in Wales or the work of the Prince's Trust. For example, he spent a day with President Chirac of France at a Prince's Trust project in Glasgow and took President Mandela of South Africa to see urban regeneration work in south London. A friend said: "He would certainly not contemplate doing anything like that with the Chinese president."

The Prince first met the Dalai Lama in 1991 when the Tibetan leader, who lives in exile in India, was touring Britain. It was Government policy not to recognise the Dalai Lama and ministers were under orders to avoid any official contact. The Chinese government had warned that any formal meeting would harm Sino-British relations.

So the Prince ensured that he was addressing an environmental conference which the Dalai Lama was attending and the two met at lunch afterwards. To the alarm of the Foreign Office, the Prince even expressed a desire to visit Tibet. He has a keen interest in the Himalayan region and last year enjoyed a private trek through Tibet's neighbour, Bhutan, at the end of an Asian tour.

The Prince and the Dalai Lama share a deep interest in spiritual matters and in 1995 both lent their support to a project to build an inter-faith centre in Britain. On May 12 this year the Dalai Lama travelled secretly to Highgrove, where the two men talked alone and had lunch together.

Last night's absence will place considerable new strains on the relationship between the Prince and the Government. His uncompromising stance on genetically modified food has annoyed ministers and his views on education, the environment and country sports, among other subjects, have often been at odds with Government thinking, even if they have usually struck a popular chord.

The Prince's boycott effectively rules out any prospect of him making his first visit to China in the near future. There had been speculation that Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother had also snubbed President Jiang, because she neither attended Tuesday's state banquet nor entertained him to the traditional Clarence House tea which is laid on for state visitors.

But a Clarence House spokesman said the Queen Mother had always been due to remain in Scotland this week and that the normal courtesies would have been observed if she had been in London.