Racial comment against Chinese leads to protests

The Chinese community in the United States has demanded Fox News fire host Bob Beckel and are asking for an apology after Beckel's discriminatory comment about Chinese people aired on July 4.

During his program The Five, Beckel said that "Chinese are the single biggest threat to the national security of the US. Do you know what we just did? As usual, we bring them over here and teach a bunch of Chinamen, uh, Chinese people, how to do computers, and then they go back to China and hack us."

California State Senator Ted Lieu, who represents Santa Monica and much of the South Bay, called on Beckel to resign immediately.

"We should all be alarmed by the racist, xenophobic comments by Fox News host Bob Beckel," Lieu said. "His comments have no place in America and this is at least the second time he has used racial slurs. He must resign immediately.

"It is Mr Beckel's extreme racist and xenophobic views that are a threat to the American people and he should resign now," Lieu said.

This is not the first time that US TV hosts have made offensive comments about Chinese. In October, ABC host Jimmy Kimmel apologized for airing a clip of a child who suggested that "killing everyone in China" could be a solution to the US debt problem.

"Chinese-Americans play a pivotal role in the development of US advanced technology, making up half of Silicon Valley's scientists and engineers. They were deeply hurt by Beckel's words," said Albert Wang, Bay Area chairman of the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association. He asked Fox to fire Beckel immediately.

Shi Yinghong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China, said Beckel's speech is unacceptable to all Chinese. Shi expressed his support for the Chinese communities' call for Beckel's resignation and apology, saying Fox News has the responsibility to urge Beckel to apologize and handle the aftermath.

Zhang Yi contributed to this story.