Jackie Chan booed in Taiwan

TAIPEI - Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan on Wednesday made his first visit to Taiwan since he accused the island's president of staging an election-eve shooting four years ago.

The actor had avoided the island since calling the shooting, which slightly wounded incumbent candidate Mr Chen Shui-bian in March 2004, 'the biggest joke in the world'.

The remark damaged Chan's reputation with Mr Chen's Democratic Progressive Party, which favours formal Taiwanese independence, a stance clearly at odds with Chan's own identification with Greater China - Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and the mainland.

Scores of protesters shouted 'Jackie Chan, get out' as the actor, having arrived aboard a private jet, was escorted by bodyguards and local police out of the airport near Taipei. But his supporters also yelled, 'Welcome, Jackie Chan.'

A woman told CTI TV at the airport: 'Jackie Chan insulted Taiwanese people and denied the value of our democracy.'

Chan maintained a smile as he made his way through a crowd of photographers.

Speaking to reporters a month after Mr Chen left office and Mr Ma Ying-jeou of the opposition Nationalists was sworn in, he acknowledged that he was nervous before arriving in Taipei.

'I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what clothes to wear. So in the end, I just decided to be natural.'

In Taiwan to promote his charity work on behalf of one of the island's youth soccer teams, he said he was not concerned that some Taiwanese did not welcome his visit.

'This is normal everywhere,' he said. 'It's normal in Germany and the United States. I really don't care about it.'