Hong Kong-based movie star Jackie Chan is not coming to Vietnam to join the 30th anniversary of presence of Operation Smile in the country as scheduled after a boycott call against him went viral on social media.
| Jackie Chan in a poster of Operation Smile. |
Operation Smile will not hold any activities with the participation of Jackie Chan in the upcoming anniversary in Vietnam, Operation Smile Vietnam (OSV) said in a statement on its Facebook page on Friday.
This change comes because OSV could not foresee the Vietnamese people’s reaction and the non-profit organization did not have any plan for Jackie’s activities in Vietnam although it “always treasures his contributions to the organization’s charity activities,” OSV explained.
OSV has also removed all Jackie Chan-related images it had posted earlier on the page ahead of the anniversary, due to take place in Hanoi on November 10.
OSV on November 7 announced that Jackie Chan was coming to Vietnam on the occasion of the 30th anniversary, but had to remove a poster containing his image due to a strong protest wave from Vietnamese netizens because of the movie star’s backing of the vague nine-dash line that represents China illegal claims of over 80% of the South China Sea.
