ABC apologizes for Jimmy Kimmel's 'kill everyone in China' joke

(UPI) -- Not everyone laughed when Jimmy Kimmel Live aired a video sketch (available here) in which school children discussed ways to solve the America's debt crisis. One of their proposed solutions was to "kill everyone in China," so that the U.S. wouldn't have to pay off the $1.3 million it owes the Asian nation.

According to Deadline, the joke was unscripted. It occurred when Kimmel asked as a 6-year-old boy how the U.S. should pay China back.

"Kill everyone in China," the child said.

"That's an interesting idea," Kimmel responded with a laugh.

Asian-American equal opportunities group 80-20 complained to ABC, saying that the network should never have allowed the late-night show to air the video.

“We offer our sincere apology,” ABC said in a statement.

We would never purposefully broadcast anything to upset the Chinese community, Asian community, anyone of Chinese descent or any community at large. Our objective is to entertain. We took swift action to minimize the distribution of the skit by removing it from all public platforms available to us and editing it out of any future airings of the show. We hope our actions and our apology effectively address your concerns. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.