The Chinese embassy in Buenos Aires has criticized a senior Argentine official for blaming a Chinese state company for a deadly glacier collapse in Nepal.

The Chinese embassy in Buenos Aires has accused Juan Pablo Carreira, the digital communication director for Argentina's presidency, of spreading malicious rumors regarding a recent natural disaster. Carreira had claimed on social media that a Chinese state company was responsible for the flood that devastated the Nepal-Tibet border region on August 26. The embassy urged an end to the politicization of the disaster, which scientific analysis has identified as a glacier collapse.

Details of the Nepal Disaster

The disaster occurred when a mass of ice and rock broke from a glacier on the northern slopes of Langtang Lirung in Nepal, falling 1,200 meters. The debris blocked the Lhende Khola river, creating a lake that eventually burst, sending a surge of water and mud down the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers. The United States Geological Survey initially misidentified the event as an earthquake before reclassifying it as a glacier collapse.

Official Responses and Political Context

Carreira alleged on X that a Chinese state company building a hydroelectric installation near the glacier caused the collapse, linking the event to his views on communist governments. In response, the Chinese embassy stated that satellite imagery and scientific analysis had already ruled out infrastructure as the cause. Presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier noted that the government only answers for official accounts and claimed no knowledge of an official making such statements, while opposition deputies have called for Carreira to be summoned to Congress.