UK Foreign Secretary's faux pas hits close to home

Britain's new Foreign Secretary was hoping to strengthen ties between Britain and China during his visit.

Instead, Jeremy Hunt kick-started his trip to Beijing by describing his Chinese-born wife as Japanese to a room full of officials.

Speaking at a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Hunt said: "My wife is Japanese. . . . My wife is Chinese, sorry. "

Although he quickly corrected himself, his gaffe was met with an outburst of laughter from his hosts and disbelief on social media.

In a video watched thousands of times online, officials can be seen smirking and bowing their heads as Hunt jokingly mutters, "Redo the cameras."

As history will attest, relations between China and Japan have long been rocky.

Notwithstanding Hunt's confusion, he has been married to Lucia Guo since 2009. The couple have three children.

Describing his comment as a "terrible mistake to make," Hunt continued: "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."

Twitter was quickly ablaze with comments skewering Hunt's very awkward mistake. "The thought of forgetting my wife's birthday brings me out in a cold sweat. This is a whole other level," wrote one observer.

This is the moment UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt forgets his wife's nationality during a diplomatic trip to China. pic.twitter.com/panYQiuG1F

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) July 30, 2018

Another tweeted: "nope, sorry, I can't even work out how this happens. there will be a small part of my brain devoted to thinking about this forever"

As "Jeremy Hunt" began trending online, a handful of people attempted to defend his comment - referring to it as "a slip of the tongue." Many, however, were thoroughly unimpressed. "It takes a special kind of man to somehow forget his wife's nationality," one tweet read.

Hunt recently replaced Boris Johnson as foreign secretary. Johnson, who resigned July 9, was well known at home and abroad for his outstanding ability to generate awkwardness: joking about the Turkish President "having relations" with a goat, for example, and likening Hillary Clinton to "a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital."

Bungled attempts by Johnson to add a personal touch to diplomacy only left Brits shaking their heads in disapproval.

Hunt told his Chinese hosts: "My big hope is that we can make the friendship between China and the UK grow deeper."