Mai Tian, an IT commentator, apologized to Chinese celebrity writer Han Han hours after Han wrote another article to refute ghost-writing allegations against him on Wednesday.

In Mai's apology letter released on his microblog account, he admitted accusations that Han used a team of ghost-writers lacked sufficient evidence after he read microblog entries published by Wang Fan, the author of Han Han's biography, Han Han H Files.

The book documents the 10 years after Han withdrew from school and became professional race car driver in 1999.

Wang listed nine times when  Han's racing schedule clashed with his blogging time, which was one of the main points of Mai's argument, that Han did not have enough time and energy to write long articles.

Wang mentioned those dates in his book and offered explanation to readers as to how Han was able to publish his blog posts on those racing days.

"I feel deeply sorry for any negative impact I may have had on Han, his father and Li Qigang. My apology also goes to all the readers of my blogs and micro-blogs," Mai said in his letter. "I have deleted all the previous articles so as to minimize the impact."

He also expressed willingness to bear all possible consequences incurred by his actions, but denied that he had any ulterior motives in criticizing Han.

Mai insisted in the letter that there was nothing wrong with upholding an independent opinion and that society should always have other voices instead of echoing and following the lead of others blindly.

Han accepted Mai's apology yesterday. However, Fang Zhouzi, a well-known opponent of academic fraud, continued to support Mai's previous suspicions in his latest Weibo entries posted yesterday.

"Everyone has the right to question a public figure, no matter how influential he is. I don't think Mai's suspicions are far-fetched, but this does not mean they are true," Fang told the Global Times yesterday.

Fang believed Han's response to Mai's accusations by offering money to the public was insincere and this reaction was abnormal.

Fang said he does not want to further question Han in the matter.

Han updated his blog around 9:30 pm yesterday, saying that Fang had quoted his remarks out of context to defend himself, and that he is spreading rumors.

Han demanded explanations from Fang about his accusations in the latest blog article.