Foreign minister Philip Hammond, however, was quoted by British media as saying that the visit had been “hugely stressful”.
But he added: “Our relationship with China is very strong and has been greatly strengthened by the success of that visit.”
Buckingham Palace said it would not comment on the queen’s private conversations.
“However the Chinese State Visit was extremely successful and all parties worked closely to ensure it proceeded smoothly,” a palace official said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Cameron was overheard at another Buckingham Palace event to mark the queen’s birthday calling Nigeria and Afghanistan “possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world”.
He was filmed making the remarks to the queen and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, ahead of an anti-corruption summit in London on Thursday where the Afghan and Nigerian presidents are expected.
“We’ve got some leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain,” the prime minister said.
“Nigeria and Afghanistan, possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world,” he added.
Welby, who worked as an oil executive in West Africa before joining the church and who has also undertaken conflict resolution work in Nigeria, noted that “this particular president is actually not corrupt”.
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“He’s really trying,” Cameron agreed, and the queen noted to Welby: “He is trying, isn’t he?”
It was not clear to whom they were referring, but Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani are both due to attend the summit.
In anti-bribery watchdog Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index for 2015, Afghanistan ranks 166th and Nigeria 136th out of 168 countries and territories.
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