IAN Paisley Jr has apologised after using — in an apparent reference to a Chinese takeaway — a term used as an anti-Chinese racist insult during a live radio interview.
The North Antrim DUP MP told BBC Radio Ulster presenter Alan Simpson that he was “going for a chinky tonight”.
Patrick Yu, head of the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, pointed out that the term was used by racists “and is totally inappropriate”.
A spokesman for Mr Paisley said that the MP had spoken to Mr Yu “and expressed profusely his deepest regrets if any offence was caused”, adding that he did not mean the term to be insulting and that Mr Paisley had “an exceptional track record of working with the Chinese community”.
Chinese Welfare Association chief executive Eileen Chan-Hu said that Mr Paisley, who has worked with her association, had phoned her to apologise. She said that while the term “chinky” was “unacceptable”, she did not believe that it had been said with racist intent.
The gaffe emerged yesterday as the DUP’s, Jonathan Bell, who has built links with China, was welcoming China’s acting Consul General to a Stormont exhibition of Chinese art.
A note on the BBC iPlayer recording of Monday’s Alan Simpson Show says that it “has been edited since transmission”. A BBC spokesman said: “The contributor made the comment at the end of a live interview. It is never our intention to offend our listeners and comment has been removed from the iPlayer listen again facility”.
