Jackie Chan's son caught in drug arrest

Police deny stars being targeted in special 'anti-celebrity' rackdown

Beijing police this weekend detained the son of Hong Kong kungfu star Jackie Chan for his involvement in a drug case, making the 32-year-old actor-singer the latest celebrity held in the recent anti-drug campaign.

Jaycee Chan, 32, also known as Fang Zuming, was arrested for housing others to take drugs, along with Ko Chen-tung, 23, a movie star from Taiwan also known as Kai Ko, Beijing police confirmed in a statement released late on Monday. Chan is under criminal detention for further probing, according to the police.

Ko was arrested and given a sentence of 14 days' detention for drug use by Beijing police, according to his agent's statement on late Monday. Ko is a leading actor in many hit movies, such as Tiny Times and You Are the Apple of My Eye. Ko's agent also apologized to the public in the statement.

Police found more than 100 grams of marijuana in Chan's house. According to the statement, Chan and Ko confessed to taking drugs. Chan and Ko, along with another suspect, was detained in Beijing's Dongcheng district on Thursday, after the police received reports from local residents. Another suspect who sold the drug to Chan was detained on Friday morning in Xicheng district.

Those involved in providing locations for other to take drugs face sentences of up to three year in prison, according to China's Criminal Law. The crime of transporting, manufacturing or trafficking drugs can be the death penalty.

Jaycee Chan's father, Jackie Chan, was appointed as goodwill spokesman for the China National Anti-Drug Committee in 2009, vowing to promote anti-drug education in the country.

Drug use among Chinese celebrities has become a hot topic this year as a number of TV and film stars having been arrested. Famous scriptwriter Chen Wanning, known as Ning Caishen, was among those arrested for drug use in July.

An official from the anti-narcotics office of the Beijing Public Security Bureau denied that the recent arrests were a result of police establishing a special anti-drug campaign targeting the entertainment industry, chinanews.com reported.

Beijing police said on Monday that more than 7,800 suspects have been detained for being involved in drug cases so far in 2014. "Only 0.15 percent of suspects are from the entertainment industry, while more than 93 percent are unemployed," the Monday statement announced, adding police have made unparalleled efforts on cracking down drug abuse.

"To pay attention to the celebrity drug crackdown can be helpful for the war on drugs, as drug user in China gains younger users," a Beijing-based university professor of public security told the Global Times on condition of anonymity.

Statistics from the Public Security Ministry showed that by the end of May, 2013, of the total 2.61 million registered drug users, 20,000 were minors, accounting for 0.8 percent.

In response to the number of drug scandals involving stars being exposed, 42 agencies sent an anti-drug commitment letter to the Beijing police Wednesday, promising that they will not employ any actor or actress who has taken drug, though China's anti-drug law regulates that no discrimination is allowed toward reformed drug users in work, education and welfare.