CNN was forced to apologise today after a news commentator called the Chinese as a “bunch of goons and thugs”.

Jack Cafferty made the comments on April 9 on CNN’s political programme, The Situation Room, in which he also described Chinese products as "junk".

In a statement, CNN said: “It was not Mr. Cafferty’s nor CNN’s intent to cause offence to the Chinese people, and we would apologise to anyone who has interpreted the comments in this way.

Cafferty was offering his “strongly held” opinion of the Chinese Government, not China’s people, the company said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had yesterday demanded an apology, saying that Cafferty’s comments reflected his “ignorance and hostility toward China”.

Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign office, said: “We are shocked by and strongly condemn the malicious attacks on the Chinese people by CNN’s Cafferty. We demand CNN and Cafferty himself take back his vile remarks and apologise to all the Chinese people.”

Beijing had already singled out CNN as among Western news outlets that produced allegedly biased coverage of violent anti-government protests in Tibet and across western China last month.

According to a transcript posted on the CNN website, the famously curmudgeonly Cafferty said: “We continue to import their junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food and export, you know, jobs to places where you can pay workers a dollar a month to turn out the stuff that we’re buying from Wal-Mart.

“So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed,” he continued. “I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.”

Numerous Chinese web postings, YouTube videos and Facebook groups have criticized Western Tibetan news coverage, including a Web site called anti-cnn.com, which was set up especially to point out alleged media bias.

CNN maintained today that it was "a network that reports the news in an objective and balanced fashion".

It added: "As part of our coverage we also employ commentators who provide robust opinions that generate debate.

“It should be noted that over many years, Jack Cafferty has expressed critical comments on many governments, including the US government and its leaders."

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