To scientists, the cause of this week’s deadly flash flood on the border between China and Nepal is clear: a glacier high on the Nepal side of the Himalayan range collapsed, sending catastrophic amounts of water and debris downstream. Initial uncertainty over the cause of the event fuelled a wave of misinformation on social media, some of which pinned the blame for the event on Chinese-built infrastructure in the region. But a war of information over China’s activities in the region continued to...