The US State Department has withdrawn a letter written to a Chinese-American rejecting his passport application because his photograph was "too yellow".
Conceding that the letter dated May 26 to Mt. Li "can be interpreted as offensive", the department's consular section told the Daily Telegraph that the letter was "not meant to offend and was intended to address the colour hue of the photograph itself, not the applicant's skin tone". . (Source: Alex Spillius, Telegrqph.co.uk, Jun 4, 2010).