The Chinese company behind a controversial "racist" detergent advert that went viral last week has apologized on Saturday after it was stormed with racism allegations from netizens.

Claiming to be strongly against racial discrimination itself, Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics Ltd. Co. issued a statement of apology late on Saturday for the controversy brought by the commercial. However, the company blamed overseas media for amplifying the advertisement.

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"We express our apology for the harm caused to the African people because of the spread of the ad and the over-amplification by the media," the statement said. "The advertisement and the surrounding controversy have hurt those of African descent, and because of this we would like to apologize."

The company blamed international media for being "too sensitive," thus fuelling the issue. The advert first appeared in March but was taken down this week following widespread media coverage.

In its official Weibo account, the company said it never intended to discriminate people by their color, and this is not a basis to judge others.

"We mean nothing but to promote the product, and we had never thought about the issue of racism," a representative of the company told Global Times on Friday.

The company has requested that netizens stop sharing the advert on social media.

The 50-second advert, which was posted on YouTube, has been viewed over 6.5 million times over the past few days.

The controversial commercial shows a young Chinese woman doing her laundry. A black man with face and shirt stained with paint walks toward her. Looking at each other, she places a detergent tab on the man's mouth and stuffs him to the washing machine head-first. Then after washing, a fair-skinned Chinese man emerges from the machine.

TagsQiaobi, Chinese Detergent Ad, Racism, racial discrimination