A group of Parliamentarians has criticised the UK government’s decision to invite Chinese government officials to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, calling it “extraordinary” and “inappropriate.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that Beijing is “actively considering” sending a high-level delegation to attend the funeral on Monday, but it has not given more details.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is currently meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Uzbekistan, and is thought unlikely to travel to London for the funeral.
In a letter to the Speakers of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, senior Conservative MPs Tim Loughton and Sir Iain Duncan Smith, crossbench peer Lord Alton, and Labour peer Baroness Kennedy said they were “greatly concerned” to hear that “the government of China has been invited to attend the state funeral next week, despite other countries Russia, Belarus and Myanmar being excluded.”…