State media has begun responding to a controversy whipped up last week by popular CCTV host Yang Rui's call to 'clean out foreign trash'.
The Chinese-language version of the Global Times published a harsh front-page story yesterday that was preceded by a softer editorial in both the Chinese and English versions of the paper the day before.
The Chinese version of the newspaper, known to be more conservative than its English sister publication, ran a front-page report yesterday headlined 'Foreign media fabricating xenophobia claim again China'.
The report also defended Yang, who made the comments on his personal microblog and also used foul language. Others haven't been so quick to give Yang a pass, with calls for foreigners to not appear on the English-language programme Dialogue, which Yang hosts, until he is sacked.
Wednesday's editorial appeared to be an attempt to calm both upset foreigners and angry mainlanders, after anti-foreigner sentiment spread online following two incidents caught on video: a British man said to be sexually assaulting a Chinese woman in Beijing, and a Russian cellist insulting a Chinese passenger on a mainland train.
Analysts said the editorial could have been written under an order by higher authorities to calm tensions, but it could also suggest a growing call among the public for a rational response to the Yang incident.