Argentinian President Rebuked For Mocking Chinese Accent After Beijing Visit

Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner drew rebuke from Chinese netizens for mocking the accent of her hosts when she visited China last week to drum up financial support for her country.

During her four-day visit to Beijing where she had a meeting with President Xi Jinping, Kirchner signed a number of political, economic and military cooperation agreements, according to Want China Times.

However, instead of thanking her hosts for their generosity and hospitality, the President of recession-hit Argentina could not help but make fun of their accent.

Following her visit, Kirchner made a post on Twitter in an apparent attempt at humor. Her post in Spanish reads: "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 English translation of her tweet is: "More than 1,000 participants at the event. Are they all from La Campora and in it only for the 'lice' and the 'petloleum'?" La Campora is the Argentinian political youth organization that supports her government.

In her tweet, the Argentinian leader deliberately replaced the letter "R" with the letter "L" so it sounded like she was saying "lice" and "petloleum," instead of rice and petroleum, apparently mocking the Chinese inability to correctly pronounce the consonant "R."

Kirchner's post was retweeted over 4,000 times.

It immediately drew angry response from users of Weibo, a Twitter-like website in China. "A head of a state desperately in need of economic rescue from China, while on Chinese soil, still exudes a racial superiority out of nowhere," one user was quoted as saying.

"Why don't you try Mandarin Chinese?" another user asked.

Kirchner immediately posted a response to critics. "Sorry. ¿Sabes qué? Es que es tanto el exceso del ridículo y el absurdo, que sólo se digiere con humor. Sino son muy, pero muy tóxicos. — Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) February 4, 2015"

English translation: "Sorry. You know what? It's just that things are so excessively ridiculous and absurd. They can only be digested with humor. ..."

Chinese officials have not yet responded to their Argentinian visitor's tweets.

Aside from deals on aerospace and a $6.8-billion financing for the construction of two hydroelectric dams and a railway, the Argentinian President also acquired Chinese military weapons, including five Chinese P18 corvettes.

China has already lent Argentina $14 billion since 2007, Fox News reported.

Overall, the Asian economic giant has lent Latin America over $100 billion, tied more with requirements on working with Chinese firms on infrastructure projects or to pay back with millions of oil barrels in the future, Fox News said. American and European lenders have stayed away from such risky countries.