Prince William To Make Visit To China

Prince William will visit China early next year but the Duchess of Cambridge is likely to stay in the UK as she will be heavily pregnant.

The Duchess is due to give birth to the couple's second child in the spring.

Kensington Palace previously said her presence at future engagements would be decided on a "case-by-case" basis.

Prince William was forced to stand in for his wife in September on a two-day trip to Malta - a visit that would have been Kate's first solo overseas tour.

The royal couple's last big tour was in April 2014 when they showed off Prince George to an enthusiastic Australian public.

Prince William's trip to China looks set to resurface debate over his father's attitude to the country.

The Prince of Wales has never been on an official visit to mainland China - only to Hong Kong for the handover ceremony when it reverted to Chinese control in 1997.

Charles is also a longtime admirer of exiled Tibetan figurehead the Dalai Lama, regarded by China as a dangerous separatist threat, and was accused of boycotting a Chinese state visit in 1999 when he missed a banquet.

He was also out of the country for the official dinner when then-president Hu Jintao visited in 2005.

However, in 2009 he held private talks with Mr Hu at a London hotel, raising the issue of Tibet, and also opened The Prince's Charities Foundation (China) in Beijing.

A high-profile tour by Prince William will be viewed as a further attempt to improve diplomatic relations.