Why King’s coronation visitor checklist is breaking conference and inflicting controversy

For the world’s strongest, there could be no fixture fairly as uncommon, glittering and wanted as a British coronation.

There has not been one for seven many years and leaders and their retinues are flying in to participate.

For Britain, it’s a probability to point out off its greatest belongings and exude and exert as a lot tender energy as is diplomatically attainable firstly of the Carolean period.

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Convention has for hundreds of years dictated that different topped royals don’t attend British coronations. Not this time.

At least 4 kings and queens and a clutch of princes and princesses are on their manner. There shall be 90 heads of state in attendance.

US President Joe Biden is following conference and never coming, represented by his spouse, the primary woman, as an alternative. But most presidents or prime ministers that you’d count on shall be there.

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) says 450 international dignitaries shall be in Westminster Abbey in whole – that’s a couple of quarter of the congregation, with 200 nations, realms and Commonwealth international locations being represented.

Seating all of them would require strict adherence to protocol to keep away from inflicting offence.

In entrance rows shall be international royals and representatives of the realms, these 14 international locations that also regard the king as head of state.

Behind them, representatives of abroad territories, then representatives from different commonwealth nations with their very own heads of state. Behind them, different company shall be seated in strict alphabetical order.

In all, the FCDO shall be internet hosting 220 international delegations this weekend.

The checklist of nations to not obtain an embossed invitation from Buckingham Palace is brief and predictable. Afghanistan, Belarus, Myanmar, Russia, Syria, Iran and Venezuela. North Korea has been invited however solely at ambassadorial stage. Nicaragua likewise.

Read extra:
Who’s lacking from the coronation visitor checklist?
Here’s how different international locations do their coronations

But China has been requested. And that’s inflicting appreciable controversy as a result of the person Beijing is sending is extensively considered the oppressor of Hong Kong. China’s President Xi Jinping has turned down the invite and is sending his vice chairman as an alternative.

Han Zheng is the Chinese official who did most to tear up the British-Chinese settlement over the previous colony, order a brutal crackdown on protests and ship a whole bunch to jail.

The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation informed Sky News: “It is pretty disgraceful that the architect of Hong Kong’s demise has been invited to the coronation of King Charles III while other partners with whom the UK has an excellent relationship with, such as Taiwan, have been excluded.

“Who calls the pictures in Britain, is it Beijing or our prime minister? Why are we kowtowing to Beijing for the visitor checklist to our personal coronation?”

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Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith, who has been sanctioned by the Chinese government, told Sky News: “Han Zheng is primarily answerable for the crack down on democracy campaigners in Hong Kong beneath the brutal new nationwide safety legislation. Many are British passport holders, significantly Jimmy Lai, journalist and proprietor of Apple Daily [the Hong Kong pro-democracy paper].

“The architect of this brutal policy in Hong Kong will rub shoulders with the British PM and the King whilst Jimmy Lai and others have lost their freedom.”

Undeterred by the controversy, Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Cleverly shall be assembly Han Zheng forward of the coronation.

His officers say he shall be discussing “points of criticism” with the vice chairman. Among them shall be China’s remedy of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang province and failure to abide by commitments in Hong Kong.

But former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten says Han’s attendance on the coronation reveals that China doesn’t give “two hoots” concerning the UK.

Ministers are exploiting the presence of a number of international dignitaries in London for much less controversial conferences on the sidelines of the occasion.

The authorities shall be hoping the coronation shall be a robust projection of Britain’s tender energy – not least the attendance of globally-known celebrities, from Joanna Lumley and the Beckhams to Mr Bean (aka Rowan Atkinson).