CNN President Jim Walton has apologized for the anti-China remarks made by CNN commentator Jack Cafferty, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said yesterday.

"On behalf of CNN I'd like to apologize to the Chinese people for that," Walton said in a letter to Zhou Wenzhong, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, Qin said.

"CNN has the highest respect for Chinese people around the world and we have no doubt that there was genuine offense felt by them over the Jack Cafferty commentary," the letter said.

In early April, Cafferty said in a live show that Chinese products were "junk" and the Chinese were "basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years".

As a result of complaints from China, CNN last month issued a statement saying "it was not Mr Cafferty's nor CNN's intent to cause offense to the Chinese people, and CNN apologizes to anyone who has interpreted the comments in this way".

At that time the network said Cafferty was offering his "strongly held" opinion of the Chinese government, not the people.

Xinhua

(China Daily 05/16/2008 page7)