We applaud CNN commentator Jack Cafferty for an April 9 broadcast in which he spoke what we believe to be the unvarnished truth about China’s leaders and their unsavory business practices.

While Cafferty could have made it clearer from the start that his criticisms were directed against China’s government and not its people, it’s nevertheless a shame that the pundit and his network felt compelled to apologize after a predictably hypocritical uproar ensued from a country that claims international reporting on its brutality toward Tibet is merely Western bias.

It is no secret to those on the outside that China is running roughshod over the rest of the world. But the Chinese people, heavily censored as their news media are, think the mounting criticisms of their country are the same kinds of nationalist attacks that they were subjected to during the Cold War and the previous century’s imperialist race-baiting against the “Yellow Peril.”

The situation today is different — now that China’s economy is the fastest growing in world history, and its sheer size, coupled with its relentlessly closed society, has led to abuses that range from toxic products endangering the health of living creatures worldwide to labor practices that border on slavery.

But Cafferty said it well himself. According to a transcript posted on the CNN Web site, the curmudgeonly commentator stated:

“Well, I don’t know if China is any different, but our relationship with China is certainly different. 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 also are running hundred 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 to turn out the stuff that we’re buying from Wal-Mart. So I think our relationship with China has certainly changed. I think they’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.”

In response, hackers promised a “flame of revenge” attack on CNN’s Web site and death threats were issued against Cafferty, while CNN reporters in China were hassled and the network vilified. CNN’s Web site was hacked and service was interrupted.

In the aftermath, CNN — which, even though its distribution in China is limited to high-end hotels and special compounds, still rakes in more than $100 million in advertising revenue from Asia — issued a clarification stating that Cafferty’s “strongly held” opinions applied to the Chinese government, and not to the Chinese people.

The network issued a controversial apology on April 14 to “anyone who has interpreted the comments” to be causing offense.

Still dissatisfied with CNN’s response, several thousand demonstrators picketed CNN’s Hollywood office and demanded that CNN fire Cafferty. A similar demonstration also took place at the CNN Atlanta headquarters.

Cafferty also issued a clarification stating that his “goons and thugs” reference was applied strictly to the Chinese government.

The Chinese reaction strikes us as classic kill-the-messenger — almost literally. We wonder what part of Cafferty’s criticism they could possibly claim as inaccurate — that we import their “junk” or that they are led by “goons and thugs?”

For a culture that prides itself on taking the long view, it should be self evident to the Chinese that the course of wisdom would be to listen carefully to international criticism and take it seriously, rather than reacting to critics with kneejerk attacks and censorship.

What’s more, China Inc. surely would find that listening to its customers’ complaints is the most profitable business strategy in the long run.