Posted on 01/14/2013 10:16:27 AM PST by Red Badger
Action star Jackie Chan has once again sparked controversy by branding America the world's "most corrupt" country in a TV interview.
His comments were slammed by The Washington Post's foreign affairs blogger Max Fisher as "anti-American" and a reflection of China's insecurity about itself.
Chan told Phoenix TV that China has been bullied by international powers for a long time and only began making progress in recent years.
Chan added that while China has a corruption problem, so do other nations, including America.
"If you talk about corruption, the entire world - America - has no corruption?" said the actor.
He went on to say America is "the most corrupt [country] in the world" - not China. "Where does this great breakdown [of corruption] come from? It started exactly from the [rest of the] world, the United States … If our own countrymen don't support our country, who will?" he said.
The interview to promote his new movie CZ12 was aired in December and translated into English by website Ministry of Tofu, but only alighted on by the US newspaper this week.
During the show, Chan also claimed that Chinese people should only criticise China among their own people, and not to foreigners.
"We [can] talk about it when the door is closed. To outsiders, [we should say], 'our country is the best'," he advised.
The programme then began rolling credits before Chan could finish his speech.
Chan's remarks have angered parts of the online community, both at home and abroad.
In The Washington Post's blog post, entitled The Anti-Americanism of Jackie Chan, Fisher said many US citizens familiar with Chan's movies would be surprised by his views.
"To the degree that Chan's comments were anti-American, they likewise reflect a common Chinese view of the United States, one that is rooted not just in attitudes toward America but in China's proud, but sometimes insecure, view of itself," Fisher said.
Chan recently sparked controversy for suggesting protesters be restricted in Hong Kong, and claiming he used "guns and grenades" to see off triad members.
I just can’t take Jackie Chan seriously.
He’s right — someone in the US had to receive a pretty big bribe to get Chan’s remake of The Karate Kid into theaters.
Considering who we have as president, I have to say Mr. Chan is not too far off the mark. We are better off than the Chinese as far as corruption goes, because at least we have some measure of hope, however small, that we can still change things through the electoral process. China is pretty much stuck with the ruling oligarchy it has. But in terms of pure corruption, one look at the Dear Leader’s administration, and the corrupt media that supports him, and you do have to wonder.
Whatever else he said, he is right about corruption.
We have little to boast about these days.
Our corruption is loud and proud, and an order of magnitude above whatever the Chinese are getting up to.
Unfortunately, what he said about America is true. In the last 4 years I’ve seen corruption that makes the mafia look innocent. And it’s overtaken all of government, all of the media, all of law enforcement, all of academia, and all of the courts. It’s got most of the churches and is working on the rest... It’s always been there in the mosques but now the mosques control the White House and all the agencies under the White House... It’s taken over the electoral process, the border, the military, and everything else. It’s like the angel of death, as portrayed in The Ten Commandments, killing everything and everyone in its path.
The America I have known and loved my entire life is gone.
And you also have to admit that however corrupt the leadership in China might be, they are looking out for China’s interests globally. Our leadership seems focused on destroying us.
As each liberal comes out against the US, I cross them off of my go-see list. It’s a shame, I used to love his movies.
Chan is a minstrel and I would normally say his political analysis is worth about what you pay for it. That said, he (unknowingly) has stumbled onto a crumb of truth. Both countries have systems in place for government scum to enrich themselves on the backs of the productive. In both countries that corruption has infiltrated all level and facets of society. The difference is in China the government dictates the corruption and in the US we vote for it. In a way the Chineese corruption is more honest becuase they don’t feel the need to try and disguise it.
Is he wrong?
One is a communist country and the other was a free country determined to become a communist country.
The matter of degree is like arguing which ocean is wetter, the Atlantic or the Pacific.
America is corrupt right down to its soul if it even still has one.
More corrupt than China? We may never know.
That's the pinnacle or corruption.
He has relatives in China, he has to say the Party Line, or else.
Talk radio and FR are special, but I’m afraid to say that thirst for freedom might be stronger in China than in the USA:
What if, instead of tanks running over the Tiannamen students the students instead voted and ASKED the tanks to run over them..?
Because I think a growing number of our people here are doing exactly that.
“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.”
— Jackie Chan
He went on to say America is “the most corrupt [country] in the world”
I don’t know what his experience in America is to say this.
IMHO he only was around liberal Hollywood elites and politicians.
Jackie doesn’t mind cashing those American checks.
All of these US institutions are extremely corrupt:
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