Less than 10 days ago the Chinese Foreign ministry demanded an apology from CNN over CNN commenter Jack Cafferty’s remarks that the Chinese are “basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years”.

Now, a Chinese primary school teacher and a beautician in New York have filed a $1.3 billion suit- $1 per person in China - against CNN over remarks they say insulted the Chinese people.

Cafferty also said the United States imported Chinese-made junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food”.

According to Reuters, CNN said Cafferty was just expressing an opinion about the Chinese government. Now the network, as well as its parent company Turner Broadcasting and Cafferty, are facing this case along with another suit filed in Beijing.

Both suits allege that Cafferty’s remarks violated the dignity and reputation of the Chinese people.

In New York, Liang Shubing, the beautician, and Li Lilan, a Beijing-based elementary school instructor, claimed Cafferty’s words insulted all Chinese people and “intentionally caused mental harm” to the plaintiffs, a Hong Kong newspaper, the Ta Kung Pao, reported yesterday.

Sidenote: Interesting to see how this plays out. Seems to me (and I’m not a lawyer) that this case involves too many plaintiffs (1.3 billion Chinese) to prove defamation.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu described the New York suit as “spontaneous activity by Chinese civilians”.

We will wait and see CNN’s response,” Jiang said in a news conference. “We hope CNN will take this seriously, because what CNN said and did has not only hurt China’s feelings, but also CNN’s own image.”

Watch video of Cafferty’s remarks after the jump>>

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Filed under: TheRag