Everyone loves Jackie Chan. Almost nobody knows he once stood in front of a crowd and said "I am jealous that you are Communist Party members. The CCP is really great. I want to become a Communist Party member."
Those are his exact words, recorded on CCTV state television in July 2021 at a symposium organized by the China Film Association in Beijing, the same day dozens of people in Hong Kong were being arrested for opposing Beijing's tightening control over the city.
This is not a recent development or a one-off comment. Jackie Chan has been one of the CCP's most useful celebrity assets for over a decade. He serves as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body operating under direct CCP oversight. He is vice-chairman of the China Film Association. He has publicly backed Beijing's National Security Law for Hong Kong, which has since been used to jail most of the city's pro-democracy leadership and shut down its free press. He has participated in CCP propaganda films and anniversary celebrations.
In 2009 he told an audience at the Boao Forum that he was "not sure if freedom is a good thing," adding that Hong Kong and Taiwan were "too chaotic" with too much freedom and that authorities should "stipulate what issues people can protest over."
This is the same man who in 1989 organized a fundraising concert in Hong Kong to support the pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square, before the CCP's military crushed them. What changed was the Chinese mainland market opening up and becoming worth billions to Hong Kong entertainment figures who aligned with Beijing.
The Paris police video is charming. Jackie Chan taking photos with starstruck officers is exactly the image he has spent decades cultivating globally. It is also exactly why he is so useful to the CCP. The world sees Rush Hour. Beijing sees a CPPCC delegate who publicly asked for Party membership on state television.
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