Chinese movie star Jackie Chan in push for law to ‘protect national dignity’
Proposal to top advisory body follows series of cases of Chinese posing in Japanese wartime uniforms
Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan is one of a group of top Chinese political advisers calling for a law to “protect national integrity and dignity”, after a string of cases of Chinese showing Japan’s wartime military in a positive light.
The call came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi labelled people who were “psychologically Japanese” as “degenerates”.
The proposal from 38 arts members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference suggests making “advocacy for Japanese militarism, fascism, and Bushido spirit” a punishable offence under criminal law.
“Publicly insulting national heroes and revolutionary martyrs” would also be subject to penalties, Jiefang Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party’s Shanghai committee, reported on Friday.
Bushido refers to the Japanese samurai code of honour and loyalty to the master and nation.
Acts harming national integrity and dignity in the form of “text, image, speech, rap, photo, film and television, or body language” should be punishable, the proposal said.
“A nation has integrity just like a person. Citizens enjoy legal rights to personal integrity, and states and nations also have rights to integrity,” Nanjing University history professor and signatory He Yunao was quoted as saying.
The call comes after police detained a 35-year-old man in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Thursday for posting a video insulting victims of a 1937 massacre in the city, which claimed thousands of lives.
In addition, there have been at least three instances of Chinese men posing in war-era Japanese military uniforms in photos posted online since August.
Police detained some of the men for disturbing public order.
The CPPCC members’ suggestion has been submitted to proposal committee for consideration.
