Hong Kong: Hollywood actor and famous martial artist Jackie Chan has termed the United States “the most corrupt country” in the world in a recent Chinese TV interview.
The remarks may not surprise many who know Chan is a passionate political activist, “a staunch defender of the Chinese Communist party” and a “harsh critic of anyone he sees as opposing Beijing”, according to The Washington Post blogger Max Fisher.
Chan also says that Chinese citizens should not criticise their country to foreigners.
“If you talk about corruption, the entire world – America – has no corruption?” Chan asked the host.
He went on to say America is “the most corrupt in the world” – not China. “Where does this great breakdown come from?
It started exactly from the world, the United States … If our own countrymen don’t support our country, who will?”
Fisher notes that “Chan’s comments, though widely disparaged on Chinese social media, do reflect a certain strain of anti-Americanism that is particular to some elements of China.”
He writes that Chan and others’ “defensiveness” is likely about “internal Chinese doubts about their country’s progress.”
