BEIJING, CHINA – Actor Christian Bale was attacked this week in Beijing after an eight-hour drive to visit a Chinese dissident.
Chen Guangcheng, a blimd human rights lawyer has been confined to his home since his release from prison last year. When approaching Chen’s home guards pushed and punched Bale and his camera crew.
After being chased 40 minutes away from the village by men in a van Bale sale:
“I’m not brave doing this,” while adding, “The local people who are standing up to the authorities, who are visiting Chen and his family and getting beaten or detained, I want to support them.”
In the CNN captured video Bale can be seen and heard pleading with the guards as he repeatedly says:
“Why can I not visit this free man?”
The guards then shout back at Bale, “Go away.”
According to Bale his trip was nothing more than an inspirational trip for him:
“What I really wanted to do was to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is.”
Chen was sentenced by the Chinese government after he represented thousands of local women who had become the victims of an aggressive family planning campaign that led to forced abortions and sterilizations.
Here’s the full CNN coverage of the incident:
Do you think the Chinese government is going to receive plenty of international pressure following an attack on a British actor and his camera crew?