China’s vice president, Wang Qishan, will attend Queen Elizabeth II’s burial, the foreign ministry announced Saturday, after a diplomatic spat that prevented Chinese officials from visiting the late monarch’s casket.
The burial for Queen Elizabeth II will be conducted in London on September 19. It will be attended by Vice President Wang Qishan, Special Representative for President Xi Jinping, according to a statement from Mao Ning of the foreign ministry.
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The Queen will be honored on Monday with the nation’s first official funeral in 60 years. The event at Westminster Abbey is anticipated to draw more than 2,000 attendees.
Wang’s participation follows an official Chinese delegation’s exclusion from the Queen’s lying-in-state due to Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons, intervening, according to parliamentary sources.
The censure came from Mao, who remarked at a news conference on Friday that the UK “should respect both diplomatic politeness and courteous hospitality.”
The rejection came after China sanctioned several British legislators for criticizing its human rights record.
