Zhengrui objected to this proposal, on the grounds that this notion of reciprocal equality was incompatible with the Chinese view of the emperor as the Son of Heaven, who had no equal. According to such a view, the British embassy was regarded officially as a tribute mission like any other. Despite Macartney and Staunton's insistence that the items the embassy brought were "gifts", Chinese officials saw them as "tribute" items. Macartney himself was to be seen as only a "conveyor of tribute", not a "legate of the sovereign" as he had earlier referred to himself, to the annoyance of the emperor.