In a media event to promote his new album in Taipei, Jackie Chan had no answer for the protests happening in his home city when prompted to give comment on the situation.
“I only found out yesterday there was a big march in Hong Kong. I don’t know anything about it,” Chan said while promoting his first album in 16 years, titled “I Am Jackie Chan.”
The media event paralleled the event of the protest, in which over a million people had taken to the city’s streets to protest a proposed extradition law that would have suspected criminals be sent to China to face trial. The mass amount of people makes it one of the largest in Hong Kong’s history, taking place three days before the semi-autonomous Chinese territory’s government plans to bring it to legislature.
Protesters have recently been reported to be targeted with teargas.
Teargassing the protestors #latergram via Instagram: https://t.co/cENnQeQ1hJ pic.twitter.com/z5YxtY0LXr
— Louisa Lim (@limlouisa) June 12, 2019
In qualunque parte del mondo, quando il popolo si oppone ai governi, questo è quello che succede. Violenza , lacrimogeni e manganello, l’evoluzione della democrazia.
📽🔴#HongKong🆘️#OpHongKong 🇭🇰#Anonymous #umbrellamovement #UmbrellaRevolution ☂️☂️☂️pic.twitter.com/4IBiccRWNS— Pablita (@saluti37) June 11, 2019
Chan has been criticized in the past for his pro-Beijing views in Hong Kong. He has made commentary about democracy in the past, such as a comment to the Boao Forum for Asia in 2009 of Hong Kong’s protests against Beijing’s interference in local affairs, saying the the city was too “chaotic” because of the protests.
“With too much freedom, we become like Hong Kong and Taiwan, such huge messes. I’m beginning to think that Chinese people need to be controlled,” Chan said.
Feature Image (left) via Instagram, (right) via Twitter