Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan, star of the upcoming The Forbidden Kingdom and an official Olympic Goodwill Ambassador, criticized people who are focusing on China's hosting of this year's summer games to protest the nation's policies, calling them "naughty boys."

"I'm [an] Olympic Ambassador," Chan said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., last week. "Olympic is Olympic and cannot mix with politics. Politics, for me, is love, peace, united. Everything is Olympic, no matter what country. I just don't know why every country, when they have [the] Olympics, a lot of people come out to oppose [them]."

Protesters have disrupted the Olympic torch relays in London and Paris and turned out in force in San Francisco to criticize China's policies with regard to Tibet and its human-rights record, among other things.

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But Chan dismissed those protests. "I just want to say, please understand there are some naughty boys," he said. "They are [protesting] for no reason. They just want to show off on the TV."

Chan added that he wanted to avoid politics. "I said before, I go to make Chinese films and support Chinese Olympic and welcome everyone," he said in broken English. "I will be at the airport and shake hands, and I say, 'Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome.'"

As an Olympic Goodwill Ambassador, the popular martial-arts star is promoting Olympic equestrian events and was pictured riding a horse in his hometown of Hong Kong.

The Forbidden Kingdom was filmed in mainland China. "It was a good location for me, because the last 10 years I haven't worked in China," Chan said. "I travel around, because when we make film we can travel to so many different locations." The Forbidden Kingdom opens April 18. --Mike Szymanski