The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday called on the Taipei City Government to replace action star Jackie Chan (成龍) as spokesman for the Deaflympics.
“Jackie Chan is unwelcome in Taiwan and the Taipei City Government should immediately remove him from the Deaflympics team,” DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) told a press conference.
Having Chan as spokesman would not bring positive publicity to the Games, Cheng said.
He said Chan did not believe in democracy and was used to living in an authoritarian regime.
“This is not the first time Jackie Chan has made ridiculous comments criticizing Taiwan,” Cheng said.
Chan said at the Boao business forum in Hainan on Saturday that freedom may not be appropriate for China.
“I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” he said. “I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”
Freedom in Hong Kong and Taiwan, he said, had made those societies “chaotic.”
Chan’s comments drew applause from an audience of Chinese government officials, but foreign reporters were shocked.
DPP caucus whip Kao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said the caucus would propose a bill requesting that the Executive Yuan stop funding the Deaflympics if the city government did not replace Chan as spokesman.
In response, Emile Sheng (盛治仁), chairman of the Taipei Deaflympics Organizing Committee (TDOC) and Taipei City’s Research and Development Evaluation Commission, said that while he personally disagreed with Chan’s comments, Taiwan was a society of democracy and tolerance.
He also said the TDOC would tell Chan the city’s concerns about his comments via the appropriate channels.
No plans to appoint a new Games ambassador have been made, Sheng said, adding that if they replaced Chan over a single comment, it would hurt Taiwan’s international image as a democracy.
Instead, the committee wishes to let sports be sports and politics be politics, and hold a sporting event that transcends politics and tolerates different points of views, he said.
He said that in this way Taiwan’s multi-faceted values and democratic tolerance would be reflected.
Asked if the committee would invite Chan to attend future TDOC events, Sheng said: “Allow me to reserve that possibility.”
Sheng said Chan was invited to be one of the 12 ambassadors for the games because of his international fame and his severe hearing impairment as a result of shooting action movies.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Justin Chou (周守訓), convener of the Foreign and National Defense Committee, disagreed with calls for Chan to be replaced.
Chou said Chan should spend more time in Taiwan so that he can gain a better understanding of the nation. Chou said he might also invite Chan to the legislature so he can sit in on legislative meetings.
However, KMT Legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅) accused Chan of creating a furor in a bid to save his movie career.
“He’s getting more and more ridiculous. He criticized China, Taiwan and Hong Kong as if he were the greatest thing in the world,” Chiu said. “Does he think he became a real super-cop and savior of the world after starring in Police Story?”
Meanwhile, Hong Kong Tourism Board Chairman James Tien (田北俊) said yesterday that he had received many complaints about Chan’s comments.
Tien said that as Chan was an internationally known star, his comments were influential, adding that the board was dealing with the complaints.
Tien said it was still being discussed as to whether Chan would be stripped of his Hong Kong Tourism Ambassador title.
Internet users in Hong Kong have called for a boycott of Chan’s movies and any products he endorses and have demanded that the Hong Kong government remove his title and his civil servant status.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS