The UK Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, made a “terrible” gaffe during his visit to China, The Guardian reported.

Hunt was on his first official visit to China as the UK FM after Boris Johnson’s resignation. Jeremy Hunt wants to curry favor with his hosts by mentioning his Chinese wife, but accidentally referred to her as “Japanese”.

“My wife is Japanese – my wife is Chinese. That’s a terrible mistake to make,” he told his counterpart, Wang Yi, adding: “My wife is Chinese and my children are half-Chinese and so we have Chinese grandparents who live in Xian and strong family connections in China.”

According the source, China and Japan have been traditional rivals for centuries.

“Although relations have improved somewhat recently, they remain touchy due to issues such as Japan’s bloody occupation of parts of China in the 1930s and 40s,” the source noted.