Argentina's president Cristina Kirchner has been labelled a racist following a comment she made on social media which mocked the way some Chinese people struggle to pronounce the letter 'r'.
Más de 1.000 asistentes al evento… ¿Serán todos de “La Cámpola” y vinieron sólo por el aloz y el petlóleo? … — Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) February 4, 2015
The message translates to: "Did they only come for lice and petloleum?"
Her tweet, which was sent ahead of a visit to China to bolster economic and political cooperation between the two countries, was retweeted over 4,000 times. It was even pinned to the top of her timeline, giving it extra prominence.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Her tweet caused outrage across social media and even appeared on front pages of newspapers back in Argentina. However, there was no official response from her hosts and her comments have gone unmentioned by Chinese media.
But online comment in China has been less restrained, says Bree Feng in the New York Times.
"You come to China to get money, but you aren't even respectful. Don't come to our country. You're not welcome," said one user.
Some took a more sneering tone: "We don’t want to take it too seriously: Argentina is just a dot on the world map, such a little place." While others simply challenged Kirchner to try and pronounce words in Mandarin accurately.
She later apologised, tweeting to her 3.5 million followers: "Sorry, the levels of ridiculousness and absurdity are so high they can only be digested with humour. Otherwise they get really, really toxic."
Her cabinet chief, Jorge Capitanich, said that the tweet was a sign of affection, [2]Bloomberg reports.
Kirchner is facing plummeting approval ratings and a political crisis back home in Argentina relating to the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman. He was found dead in January after drafting a warrant for the president's arrest, the day before he was due to give evidence to Congress.
-
Home Office worker accused of spiking mistress’s drink with abortion drugSpeed Read Darren Burke had failed to convince his girlfriend to terminate pregnancy
-
In hock to Moscow: exploring Germany’s woeful energy policySpeed Read Don’t expect Berlin to wean itself off Russian gas any time soon
-
Were Covid restrictions dropped too soon?Speed Read ‘Living with Covid’ is already proving problematic – just look at the travel chaos this week
-
Inclusive Britain: a new strategy for tackling racism in the UKSpeed Read Government has revealed action plan setting out 74 steps that ministers will take
-
Sandy Hook families vs. Remington: a small victory over the gunmakersSpeed Read Last week the families settled a lawsuit for $73m against the manufacturer
-
Farmers vs. walkers: the battle over ‘Britain’s green and pleasant land’Speed Read Updated Countryside Code tells farmers: ‘be nice, say hello, share the space’
-
Motherhood: why are we putting it off?Speed Read Stats show around 50% of women in England and Wales now don’t have children by 30
-
Anti-Semitism in America: a case of double standards?Speed Read Officials were strikingly reluctant to link Texas synagogue attack to anti-Semitism
