Sat Jul 21, 1:53 PM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - Ordinary Chinese are refusing to believe government claims that a recent media report on cardboard-filled buns was a hoax aimed at hyping the nation's food safety woes, state press said Saturday.

The government's assertion that the televised report was bogus is being viewed as an attempt by authorities to stem the bad publicity over a series of recent food safety scandals that have caused anger in China and abroad, the official Xinhua news agency said.

"I guess government departments must be hoping to reduce the negative impact on the public by declaring the TV news report a hoax," Xinhua quoted Chen Huiqin, a retired Shanghai middle school teacher, as saying.

A cab driver, surnamed Liu, said he could not believe the investigative news report aired by Beijing TV on July 8 was a fabrication.

"It's not just me, most of my customers didn't believe it was a hoax either," the report quoted Liu as saying.

The report generated wide national and international attention as the latest in a string of scares involving China-produced foods, including toxic seafood, virus-plagued pigs and chemical-laden toothpaste.

The "expose" purportedly showed a seller of the buns, known as "baozi," softening shredded cardboard with an industrial chemical and fortifying the bogus meat with a bit of fatty pork.

But following government inspections, the authorities concluded that the report was a hoax perpetrated by a temporary Beijing television station employee. Police have subsequently detained six people in connection with the case.

Earlier this month, China executed the former head of its food and drug safety watchdog for corruption, in what was widely seen as an attempt by the government to show it is serious about the problem.