Jackie Chan: 'I like countries to be hit by tsunamis and earthquakes'

ACTION star Jackie Chan has ignited controversy by saying he likes to see countries hit by tsunamis and earthquakes.

While promoting his new movie Chinese Zodiac, or CZ12, Chan was asked by a reporter about US and Chinese relations and said, in English, that he would like to see the countries work together more often.

"I should not say this, but sometimes I really like to see a country having a disaster, or a big tsunami, or a big earthquake," he said. "After the big disaster, you see the whole world, everybody, flying in to help the country, which makes me happy."

"No tsunami, no earthquake, everybody [with] nothing to do. Then politics comes in and you fight me. I fight ... I don't like to see such things," he said.

Chan, who is a UN Children's Fund ambassador, has suffered from foot-in-mouth disease before.

In 2009, he pondered whether Hong Kong’s freedom from China was a good thing.

“In the 10 years after Hong Kong’s retu to Chinese rule … I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not,” he said. “If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also very chaotic… I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”

He said Hong Kong was "a city of protest" and in January he called the US "the most corrupt country in the world."