Kirtchner waves at her Chinese guests on the same day of her racist Tweet.
Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner waves as she stands with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a welcoming ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing February 4, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

In the depths of yet another economic crisis, Cristina Kirchner is representing her country in China, where she hopes secure economic buoys in the form of infrastructure investments. It came as a surprise then, that she Tweeted a racist joke on her official visit to China (full tweet and translation below).

The Tweet, which mocks Chinese speaker’s challange to pronounce “R” sounds, has been retweeted over 3,400 times. Cristina Kirchner does not speak Chinese.

"More than 1,000 attendees at the event...," she wrote. "¿Could it be that thath they're only here for lice and petolium?"

She immediately apologized, brushing it off as “just a joke.”

"Sorry. ¿You know what? This is so excessive and ridiculous and absurd, one can only be digested with humor."

No word yet on the reaction of her Chinese hosts. One can only hope her jokes were lost in translation.

UPDATE: 2/6/2015

In a what could be construed as a conciliatory move, Kirtchner tweeted "goodbye" in Chinese as she left China on Thursday.

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