CNN President Jim Walton has apologized for the insulting remarks made by CNN commentator Jack Cafferty on China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday.

“On behalf of CNN I’d like to apologize to the Chinese people for that,” said Walton in a letter to Chinese Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong, according to Qin.

Walton also 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.”

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 in April issued a statement saying “it was not Mr. Cafferty’s nor CNN’s intent to cause offense to the Chinese people, and CNN would apologize to anyone who has interpreted the comments in this way.”

At that time the network stated that Cafferty was offering his “strongly held” opinion of the Chinese government, not China’s people.

China rejected CNN’s explanation. Chinese Foreign Ministry and the embassy in the United States lodged several solemn representations with CNN and demanded that it make an apology.

People and organizations inside and outside China have also criticized Cafferty’s “goons and thugs” comments.

Cafferty’s remarks are strongly in contrast with the professional ethics of the media and the conscience of humanity, and caused strong indignation and accusations from all Chinese people both at home and abroad, Qin said.

“We hope CNN and Cafferty would learn lessons from this and safeguard their professional reputation to avoid such things from reoccurring,” the spokesman said.

He also hoped CNN would make “comprehensive, objective, and balanced reports” on China and Sino-U.S. relations and do more to help promote the mutual understanding of the two peoples and the healthy development of Sino-U.S. relations. (Xinhua)