Late Queen kept from Hong Kong handover to avoid humiliation

by · Mail Online

The late Queen was kept away from the ceremony marking the handover of Hong Kong because diplomats feared it would be humiliating for her to be there.

Prince Charles instead stood in at the 1997 occasion – when the colony was returned to Chinese control – to avoid embarrassing her, documents show.

Questions were raised at the time about why the Queen was absent, but official papers released under the 30-year-rule shed new light on the subject. 

They show her attendance at the event ending 156 years of British rule was considered a serious possibility before Charles was confirmed for it.

The issue is addressed in papers from 1994 when officials were making plans for Charles to visit Hong Kong later that year in what was to be his penultimate trip. 

They discuss the strategy for the subsequent handover and what it would mean if the Queen attended, and show diplomats were worried she would suffer a humiliating 'instantaneous demotion at midnight'.

Prince Charles (left), former Governor Chris Patten (centre), and Prime Minister Tony Blair at the 1997 Hong Kong handover ceremony
Queen Elizabeth II attends a ceremony to mark her official birthday at Windsor Castle on June 13, 2020
View of buildings lit up on Hong Kong Harbor on the night of the Hong Kong handover to China, July 1, 1997

Officials had struggled to find records of her attending any similar events in the past where flags had been lowered.

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In a note from a junior diplomat at the Hong Kong Department, DG Roberts, to regional chief Sir Christopher Hum, it is apparent that a discussion about the Queen attending had taken place. Reporting back from a meeting with Peter Mather, from the Foreign Office's Royal Matters Department, Roberts wrote about the speculation.

'I said we would want to be extremely careful about any suggestion of this sort,' the note read. 

'The transfer of sovereignty was momentous enough historically to justify a farewell visit by The Queen, but I could also see snags about her being present on the big night, not least her instantaneous demotion at midnight from Sovereign to visiting foreign dignitary.'

At the ceremony. Charles read a farewell speech on the Queen's behalf, witnessed by dignitaries, including new PM Tony Blair and Chris Patten, Hong Kong's last Governor.