Christian Bale

Christian Bale Attacked By Guards In China

US Weekly Magazine has reported that actor Christian Bale, 37, was physically blocked by Chinese guards from gaining entrance when he attempted to visit embattled Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer and Chinese activist who is currently under illegal house arrest in an eastern Shandong Province.

Bale was in the country to promote his latest film The Flowers of War, a tale about the Japanese occupation of Nanjing in 1937.

The Flowers of War has been slammed as Chinese propaganda by many critics who claim its harsh portrayal of the Japanese and promoting Chinese nationalism are tactics used by the Communist party. It opens in China on Friday and Dec. 16 in the United States.

A CNN camera crew accompanied Bale on the drive from Beijing to Chen’s village. In the footage obtained, Bale pleads with the government officials guarding the entry points to the village of Dongshigu. “Why can I not visit this free man?” he pleads, telling the guards he wants to meet Chen, “shake his hand, and say what an inspiration he is.”

Guangcheng became persecuted when he took on the case of thousands of women who were victims of forced sterilizations and abortions. In 2006, he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail; he was released in 2010 but has remained under house arrest.