McClatchy Newspapers reports Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu lambasted CNN commentator, Jack Cafferty, for his “vicious” commentary on China.
“We solemnly request that CNN, and Cafferty himself, take back the malicious remarks and apologize to the Chinese people,” Jiang said at a news briefing.
Cafferty’s commentary on CNN’s “The Situation Room” 4/9 sounded off on China. He said the US imports “their junk with the lead paint” and their “poisoned pet food” while losing factory jobs to China, a country run by “the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.”
Jiang said Cafferty “used his microphone to denigrate China and Chinese people” and that his remarks constitute racism, reported McClatchy.
The firestorm began among angry Chinese immigrants in the US, who launched an online petition drive (www.petitiononline.com/cnncaff/petition.html) to protest Cafferty’s remarks.
Coverage quickly crossed into China, where citizens had already launched an internet campaign against CNN, accusing it of biased coverage in mid-March of an uprising of ethnic Tibetans demanding greater freedom. A Chinese “anti-CNN” website contained plenty of vitriolic remarks against Cafferty by Tuesday.
