Chinese actor Jackie Chan is the latest foreign personality to have posed doing the signature hand gesture of President Rodrigo Duterte, the fist bump.
Chan met with the chief executive during the latter’s fourth visit to China on August 29, Thursday, particularly in the capital Beijing.
It was not part of Duterte’s official agenda for the day but he was given a memoir by the famed action star titled “Never Grow Up,” a jacket and two panda bear stuffed toys.
Chan also invited Duterte to help with his own charity initiatives and attend some events in Southeast Asia.
The fist bump has been associated with supporters and allies of the president since the campaign trail that led to his election in 2016. Since then, the gesture is a staple in photo ops at government events.
Chan’s photographs with the president, however, were not warmly received by some Filipinos who claimed that the trademark gesture is associated with “human rights violations, abuse of power, damage to democratic institutions” and supposed corruption under the administration.
Chan, chan kayo magaling! Selfie, epal, junket, gastos. Does Jackie Chan even know what that fist bump stands for? Human rights violations, abuse of power, damage to democratic institutions, corruption, mediocrity, treachery & betrayal, fake news & lies, & a whole nation scammed! https://t.co/pQra1PKdpY
— karen claridad (@k_claridad) August 29, 2019
i panicked when i saw jackie chan trending cause i assumed he died but apparently it's even worse than i thought pic.twitter.com/w72GAJSObQ
— adriana (@ianacorn) August 29, 2019
Duterte is in China to discuss the Hague ruling invalidating Beijing’s sweeping claims on areas of South China Sea, as well as the need for a sea code and joint explorations of oil and gas.
Mingling with international personalities
Duterte in August last year met with Hollywood actor and film producer Stephen Baldwin who was in the Philippines to shoot a drug-themed movie titled “Kaibigan.”
Baldwin was seen making the chief executive’s signature hand gesture in the photographs, along with then-Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson.
In October 2017, the fist bump was also the move of Hollywood action star Steven Seagal who visited the Philippines for a movie about illegal drugs and crimes.
The 67-year-old actor paid a courtesy call to Duterte at Malacañan Palace.
In August 2017, Australian intelligence chief Nick Warner was criticized by the international community for making the hand gesture, which he was perceived of supporting Duterte and his “brutal policies.”
It was eventually revealed that the chief executive had personally requested for Warner to pose with the clenched fist.
Nevertheless, the pictures became a topic of concern for Amnesty International Australia which said that the country should condemn the Philippines’ extrajudicial killings.
In October 2016, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe unexpectedly flashed the gesture when he met Duterte on the sides of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos.
While the fist bump gesture was popularized by Duterte during the 2016 presidential campaign, he claimed it was originally “owned” by former President Fidel V. Ramos.
