China formally protests to Argentina over remarks by Milei official

China has summoned Argentina’s ambassador in Beijing to protest remarks by Juan Pablo Carreira, an official in President Javier Milei’s administration who linked China’s actions to the recent humanitarian disaster in Nepal.

The protest was received by Argentina’s chargé d’affaires, Guillermo Simunovich, because Ambassador Marcelo Suárez Salvia was on vacation. The move followed a statement posted by the Chinese embassy in Buenos Aires, which criticized an unnamed Argentine official for spreading what it called malicious rumors against the Chinese Communist Party and damaging China’s international image.

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While both countries are conducting rescue and emergency assistance operations and the international community is rushing to lend a hand, a certain Argentine official, driven by biased ideological prejudices, is maliciously spreading rumors to defame the Communist Party of China and tarnish China’s international image.

“While both countries are conducting rescue and emergency assistance operations and the international community is rushing to lend a hand, a certain Argentine official, driven by biased ideological prejudices, is maliciously spreading rumors to defame the Communist Party of China and tarnish China’s international image,” the embassy spokesperson, Wang Wei, said.

Argentina’s presidential spokesman, Adrián Ravier, sought to minimize the dispute during a weekly news conference. “We respond through our official accounts, those of the spokesperson’s office and the Office of the President of the Argentine Republic, and nothing more. No official has made any statement about this. What happened in Nepal is a tragedy. The government did not make any negative statement at all,” he said.

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We respond through our official accounts, those of the spokesperson’s office and the Office of the President of the Argentine Republic, and nothing more. No official has made any statement about this. What happened in Nepal is a tragedy. The government did not make any negative statement at all.

Carreira, however, had written that the Nepal disaster joined major humanitarian disasters he attributed to Communist Party-led industrial activity, including Chernobyl, the Aral Sea, the Great Leap Forward and the Holodomor. He concluded: “Communism kills. The Communist Party dressed as a ‘businessman’ kills.”

The Chinese embassy called on Carreira to change his attitude immediately, end what it described as unfounded malicious speculation, and stop politicizing or instrumentalizing natural disasters to avoid harming China-Argentina relations and cooperation. The dispute follows a separate Chinese complaint over alleged pressure by U.S. Ambassador Peter Lamelas on a cooperative in Neuquén not to do business with Huawei.

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Communism kills. The Communist Party dressed as a ‘businessman’ kills.