Britain’s new foreign minister, Jeremy Hunt, has made an embarrassing gaffe on his first official visit to China, accidentally describing his Chinese wife as Japanese during a meeting in Beijing on Monday.

Hunt, who was on his first official visit to China since taking over from Boris Johnson, quickly acknowledged the “terrible” error.

“My wife is Japanese — my wife is Chinese. That’s a terrible mistake to make,” Hunt said while trying to curry favor with his host Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Then footage of Hunt’s gaffe swiftly went viral on the internet, while British media also seized on it to show that the former health secretary may prove unfit for the job of top diplomat as Britain seeks to reach a deal with the European Union to leave the bloc by March.

Social media users referred to the gaffe with expressions line “awkward”, “historic” and “the gaffe of the century”. One user said Hunt was trying to outdo former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on who could entertain the audience more when on a foreign trip.

“In a competition with Boris Johnson to see who can commit the most knuckle chewing gaffe on an overseas visit,” wrote the user, referring to Johnson who resigned last month to protest UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s final plan for Brexit negotiations.

Others said making gaffes was the order of the day for members of the British cabinet.

“In an echo of Jeremy Hunt's gaffe today, Prime Minister Theresa May has just described her husband as a tax-payer,” read a post on Twitter.

Another tweet said the gaffe proved “UK can still compete when it comes to selling our idiots abroad”.

The BBC also published a commentary on the issue and said Hunt’s blunder was indeed embarrassing given the rivalry between China and Japan.

“Confusing China with any other country is bad if you're trying to curry favor with the Chinese government. But of all the countries to get confused with, Japan is probably the worst one,” wrote Helier Cheung on the BBC News website, adding that many in China, especially the older generation, hate Japan because they think Tokyo is playing down its wartime atrocities.

Cheung said a slip of the tongue could be a normal problem for every diplomat but said what came out of Hunt’s mount during the meeting in China was unjustifiable.

“It's awkward explaining why “Japanese” slipped out at a conference with Chinese officials - especially since he was talking about his own wife,” he said.