Jackie Chan, the Chinese actor famous for doing his own stunts, has to be pleased to know that China plans to spend more on “public security” than the military this year. According to a budget released at National People’s Congress on March 5, the Chinese government will be pumping 769 billion yuan ($124 billion) into the country’s massive network of police, jails, courts and general state security–as well as more innocuous things like subway construction and food safety.
The day before the budget was released, the 58-year-old kung fu star best known to Western audiences for his roles in “Rumble in the Bronx” and “Rush Hour” told reporters that after a recent tour of Australia and Singapore he’d come to a revelation. ”We [Chinese] are too loose in law enforcement… Our law enforcement [in China] has to be stricter,” he said at a session of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference on March 4 that included the likes of NBA star Yao Ming and Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan, all members of China’s Communist Party.
Chan’s latest comments go against critics who say that the money spent on China’s domestic security is wasted and actually foments more discontent. They are part of a string of strident public remarks in support of the CCP. In 2009, Chan said he felt democracy wasn’t appropriate for China because the Chinese people “need to be controlled.” In December 2012, when stories about government corruption in China were making headlines globally, Chan countered that the US was “the most corrupt” country in the world.