I disagree that it wasn't intentional or was an honest mistake. First of all, black people are varying shades of brown, so the association IS there. It's not like they called it "honkey brown," which would have made NO sense whatsoever. But I've never heard of "African-American" brown, much less "black" brown, much MUCH less "N*^%$#" brown. Have you? Is there nothing brown in China except for black people, and are all black people there the same color as those pieces of furniture? Basically the intention WAS there.
Second of all, it's not like you go to your handy-dandy Chinese-American dictionary, look-up "African American," and get the N word. Or maybe it's Chinese Thesaurus that's the problem?