1. Jackie Chan's China comments prompt
backlash (AP)
Source: AP Sun Apr 19, 2009, 4:20 am EDT
HONG KONG - Action star Jackie Chan 's comments wondering whether Chinese
people "need to be controlled" have drawn sharp rebuke in his native Hong Kong and
in Taiwan .
Chan told a business forum in the southern Chinese province of Hainan that a free
society may not be beneficial for China 's authoritarian mainland.
"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," Chan said Saturday. "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."
He went on to say that freedoms in Hong Kong and Taiwan made those societies
"chaotic."
Chan's comments drew applause from a predominantly Chinese audience of business
leaders, but did not sit well with lawmakers in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
"He's insulted the Chinese people. Chinese people aren't pets," Hong Kong pro-
democracy legislator Leung Kwok-hung told The Associated Press. "Chinese society
needs a democratic system to protect human rights and rule of law."
Another lawmaker, Albert Ho, called the comments "racist," adding: "People around
the world are running their own countries. Why can't Chinese do the same?"
Former British colony Hong Kong enjoys Western-style civil liberties and some
democratic elections under Chinese rule. Half of its 60-member legislature is elected,

2. with the other half picked by special interest groups. But Hong Kong's leader is
chosen by a panel stacked with Beijing loyalists.
In democratically self-ruled Taiwan, which split from mainland China during a civil
war in 1949, legislator Huang Wei-che said Chan himself "has enjoyed freedom and
democracy and has reaped the economic benefits of capitalism. But he has yet to
grasp the true meaning of freedom and democracy."
Chan's comments were reported by news outlets in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but were
ignored by the mainland Chinese press.
Although Chan was a fierce critic of the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy
protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989, which killed at least
hundreds, he has not publicly criticized China's government in recent years and is
immensely popular on the mainland.
He performed during the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and
took part in the Olympic torch relay .
Chan also is vice chairman of the China Film Association, a key industry group.
___
Associated Press writer Annie Huang in Taipei contributed to this report.