Chinese mock ‘barbaric’ British media as plot to spy on Queen emerges

China tried to smuggle a spy into the Queen’s carriage during President Xi Jinping’s state visit last year, it has emerged. Chinese media branded British journalists ‘barbarians’ after reporting Elizabeth II called Xi’s officials “very rude.”

Metropolitan Police commander Lucy D’Orsi, who was in charge of security during the Chinese premier’s visit last October, was caught on film telling the Queen about the spy.

In the video, the Queen appears to have full knowledge of the incident, as she replies with a firm “Yes.”

The incident first emerged in the Sunday Times last October, when a senior source revealed how “the bodyguard, or spy, attempted to get in the carriage and was prevented when it was ascertained by our security officials that he was actually a security official rather than the official translator.”

“In other words, they were trying to get someone dodgy into the carriage alongside the president and the Queen,” the source added.

A senior Conservative told the newspaper it was an issue of “bullying, uncomprehending Chinese police.”

A former foreign official told BBC Newsnight on Wednesday that the Queen acquiesced to meet Chinese officials under pressure from Chancellor George Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron.

A Chinese state-linked newspaper went on the attack on Thursday, branding Western media “gossip fiends and barbarians” for widely reported comments in which the Queen described Chinese officials as “very rude.”

The remarks emerged in the video shot by cameraman Peter Wilkinson.

The rare off-guard moment shows the British monarch at a garden party speaking candidly with D’Orsi.

During the exchange, D’Orsi is introduced by Lord Chamberlain Earl Peel as the person who was in charge of security for the historic visit of President Xi, an event which was heralded as the start of a “golden age” of cooperation between Britain and China.

“Oh, bad luck,” the Queen remarked.

D’Orsi asked the Queen if she knew it had been a testing time, to which she responded: “I did.”

The officer described how Chinese officials walked out of a meeting with the British ambassador to China, Barbara Woodward.

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

China’s Global Times newspaper issued a damning verdict on media coverage of the gaffe.

“The West in modern times has risen to the top and created a brilliant civilization, but their media is full of reckless ‘gossip fiends’ who bare their fangs and brandish their claws and are very narcissistic, with the bad manners of ‘barbarians.’

“As they experience constant exposure to the 5,000 years of continuous Eastern civilization, we believe they will make progress,” it added, according to a translation of the article.