The monarch appeared to make the uncharacteristically unguarded comments during a discussion with a Metropolitan Police Service commander hours after the Prime Minister was filmed telling her that Afghanistan and Nigeria were “fantastically corrupt”.
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A Buckingham Palace spokesperson later said: “We do not comment on the Queen’s private conversations”.
When Lucy D’Orsi told the royal she was Gold Commander during President Xi Jinping’s visit, the Queen replied: “Oh bad luck”.
During the conversation, the Queen also commented on Chinese officials’ interaction with the British ambassador to China, Barbara Woodward.
Elizabeth then says: “They were very rude to the ambassador”.
The gaffe occurred during a garden party hosted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
Both the Metropolitan police and the palace refused to comment on what they described as private conversations.
“We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain”, Cameron told the monarch during a reception for the queen marking her 90th birthday.
British officials laid on dollops of pomp and splendor – including a state banquet at the palace – during Xi’s four-day state visit to nurture the U.K.’s developing economic relationship with China.
Buckingham Palace has insisted the state visit, which was part of the government’s policy of courting Chinese investment, was “extremely successful”.
She oversaw security for the Chinese leader’s visit and described it as a “testing time”.
He added that he had “no knowledge” of any threats to call off the visit, referenced by D’Orsi in her comments to the Queen.
Speaking in Beijing, Lu Kang, a spokesman for Chinas foreign ministry, declined to directly address the Queens comments or confirm whether the “golden era” was still alive, Guardian reported.
“He’s really trying”, Cameron agreed, and the queen noted to Welby: “He is trying, isn’t he?”
The queen’s husband, Prince Philip, warned some British students in China in the 1980s that they would get “slitty eyes” if they stayed there too long.
During a trip to a pub with Cameron, Xi toasted the country’s stronger bond and said he was “deeply impressed by the vitality of China-UK relations”.
With his remark, the archbishop was believed to have been referring to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, who won elections a year ago promising to fight widespread corruption.
Buhari, who was elected a year ago on an anti-corruption platform, said he was “shocked” by the comments, while a senior Afghan official said the characterisation was “unfair”.
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Mr Cameron was caught on microphone ahead of an anti-corruption summit describing Nigeria and Afghanistan as “possibly two of the most corrupt countries in the world” to the Queen.
