Commentator Jack Cafferty was only "offering his strongly held opinion of the Chinese government, not the Chinese people", a point he has subsequently clarified, the Atlanta-based broadcaster said.

CNN's clarification came a day after the Chinese foreign ministry demanded an apology from it, saying Beijing was "shocked" at the remarks and strongly condemned them.

CNN, among the Western media that is under attack from China over their "distorted" coverage of the Tibet unrest, said "... it was not Cafferty's, nor CNN's, intent to cause offence to the Chinese people and (CNN) would apologise to anyone who has interpreted the comments in this way".

"We are also running hundreds of billions of dollars worth of trade deficits with them, as 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 and turn out the stuff that we're buying from Wal-Mart”, Cafferty had said in his remarks in "The Show Room", a political programme.