BEIJING — China on Tuesday intensified its criticism of the foreign news media's coverage of the Tibetan crisis by demanding that CNN apologize for sharply critical remarks made last week about the Chinese government by one of its commentators.

Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, categorized the remarks as a slander against all Chinese people, though CNN later said the criticism by the commentator, Jack Cafferty, reflected his personal opinion and was focused solely on the government.

"We are shocked at, and strongly condemn, the vicious remarks" by Mr. Cafferty "against the Chinese people," Ms. Jiang said during a regular news briefing. "We solemnly demand that CNN and Cafferty retract his vicious remarks and apologize to the whole Chinese people."

CNN issued a statement saying that Mr. Cafferty's comments represented his "strongly held" opinion of the Chinese government, not the Chinese people. The network added, "It was not Mr. Cafferty's nor CNN's intent to cause offense to the Chinese people," and said CNN "would apologize to anyone who has interpreted the comments in this way."

Ms. Jiang's unusually strong reprimand comes amid widespread public anger among many Chinese, including those living overseas, at what they perceive as biased foreign media coverage over the Tibetan crisis. The Chinese government also has been sharply critical, even as it restricts foreign reporters from freely visiting Tibetan regions to investigate the aftermath of the protests.

Specific criticisms have mostly focused on mislabeled photo captions that wrongly identified a police crackdown against Tibetan protesters in Nepal as having instead occurred in China. Several foreign journalists have received death threats and others have been inundated with angry e-mails.

One Chinese man had created an 'anti CNN' website before this latest controversy.

The tension comes months before the opening of the Olympics in Beijing.

Olympic organizers had promised that the Games would bring uninhibited access for foreign reporters to write about China and the Olympics.

Mr. Cafferty, a regular commentator on CNN's "The Situation Room," made his comments on April 9 during an exchange with the host, Wolf Blitzer. The topic was comparing China today versus a few decades ago.

"I don't know if China is any different, but our relationship with China is certainly different," Mr. Cafferty said, according to CNN. "We're in hock to the Chinese up to our eyeballs because of the war in Iraq, for one thing. They're holding hundreds of billions of dollars worth of our paper.

We are also running hundreds of billions of dollars' worth or 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 to turn out the stuff that we're buying from Wal-Mart.

"So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed," he continued. "I think they're basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they've been for the last 50 years."

Mr. Cafferty clarified his comments on Monday's broadcast of "The Situation Room," saying his phrase "goons and thugs" was intended to mean China's government, not its people.