Online, silence is golden

The Italian fashion company Dolce&Gabbana said on Wednesday that it had nothing but respect for China and the people of China, and it was very sorry for any distress caused by "unauthorized" Instagram posts.

The statement came after co-founder Stefano Gabbana sparked a storm of criticism by apparently speaking of China in an insulting way and using an offensive emoji on Instagram while defending promotional videos for the brand that had earlier come under fire for their portrayal of Chinese.

Frankly speaking, there could be different views about the video, which shows the image of a Chinese girl eating pizza with chopsticks but not using them the way Chinese people do. It is natural that some people should not like it and even for some to believe it is insulting to Chinese people.