CNN issued a statement Tuesday, saying that controversial comments made by one of its news anchors were not intended to offend Chinese people.

The statement came hours after the Chinese Foreign Ministry demanded an apology from CNN at a news conference.

Jack Cafferty called the Chinese “a bunch of goons and thugs” April 9 on CNN’s political program, The Situation Room, in which he also described Chinese products as “junk.”

In its statement, CNN said: “It was not Mr. Cafferty’s nor CNN’s intent to cause offence to the Chinese people, and we would apologize 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 statement said.

It added: “It should be noted that over many years, Jack Cafferty has expressed critical comments on many governments, including the U.S. Government and its leaders.”

Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China was “shocked” at Cafferty’s remarks and strongly condemned his “evil attack.”

“We solemnly demand that CNN and Cafferty retract their evil words and apologize to the whole Chinese people,” Jiang said.

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 media bias.

(SD-Agencies)