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
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
RSS