On 30 July 2018, the newly appointed foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, made a mortifying diplomatic gaffe on a visit to China when he referred to his Chinese wife, Lucia Guo, as Japanese. The blunder occurred during a meeting in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

Hunt was appointed foreign secretary just three weeks earlier on 9 July.

The long-serving former health secretary’s promotion came after Boris Johnson resigned in protest against the so-called Chequers plan – a compromise agreement on the future UK-EU relationship that had been revealed to the cabinet by Theresa May as prime minister.

During his tumultuous two-year spell as foreign secretary, Johnson demonstrated a remarkable tendency to commit diplomatic blunders. May was forced to intervene in December 2016 after Johnson accused Saudi Arabia of abusing Islam and acting as a puppeteer in proxy wars throughout the Middle East.

In May 2017, speaking in a gurdwara, Johnson argued that a free trade deal with India could boost exports of Scottish whisky. He was confronted by a worshipper who reminded him that the drinking of alcohol is forbidden under some Sikh teachings.

In July 2017, Johnson joked that a traditional Māori greeting could be misinterpreted and start a Glasgow pub fight. “I think it’s a beautiful form of introduction, though it might be misinterpreted in a pub in Glasgow”, he said.

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Hunt’s visit to China in July 2018 was an attempt to strengthen diplomatic and trade links ahead of the UK’s departure from the European Union.

As such, in an attempt to build rapport with his hosts, Hunt told the assembled officials and media: “My wife is Japanese – my wife is Chinese. Sorry, that’s a terrible mistake to make.”

He added: “My wife is Chinese and my children are half-Chinese and so we have Chinese grandparents who live in Xi’an and strong family connections in China.

“In fact, we came to China for our holiday in April, but not on an official visit. So my big hope is that we can make the friendship between China and the UK grow deeper and stronger.”

Lucia Guo, whom Hunt married in July 2009, was born in Xi’an, China.

The slip of the tongue was seen as especially awkward given the historical sensitivities between China and Japan. The incident was met with some awkward laughter in the room, and considerable media coverage back in the UK.

https://x.com/Jeremy_Hunt/status/1023960928927313921

Hunt later offered an apology to his wife, posting on social media: “Rule #1 as a new Foreign Sec: when reflecting in English with the Chinese on a conversation you had with them in Japanese about your Chinese wife, don’t get any of those mixed up! Apologies to the long-suffering Mrs H…!”

Having just dispensed with a gaffe-prone foreign secretary, Hunt’s first major contribution on the world stage didn’t quite signal a definitive break with the past.

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Hunt, Johnson’s somewhat less gaffe-prone successor, has since reflected on his most mortifying foreign policy faux pas.

In an August 2025 interview with the Rest is Politics podcast, co-hosted by Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart, Hunt explained his diplomatic indiscretion.

He said: “So I’d been foreign secretary a month, and I arrive in Beijing for this very important trip – first trip to China. I am nervous, and I over-prepare. I over-prepare to the extent that I think ‘not only are there things I want to raise with the Chinese foreign minister, but here are two or three points of small talk to break the ice.’

“I had two points of small talk, the first was that we both happened to speak Japanese. I lived in Japan, he was ambassador to Japan. My second bit of small talk was that my wife was Chinese.

“And in the heat of the moment, I said: ‘I’m so delighted to be here in Beijing because my wife is Japanese’.

“I thought, ‘my God, the press must have left by now’.

“I turned around and there was this wall of cameras, and the Foreign Office minder, very optimistically, said, ‘I don’t think that’s going to be the main story foreign secretary’.

“How wrong he was.”

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