Threatening to create, in the New York Times’ words, a real “public relations debacle” for China—which has otherwise enjoyed a pretty great relationship with the public so far—actor and guy who doesn’t appreciate people standing in the way of things Christian Bale was roughed up by Chinese government-backed guards while trying to visit a blind lawyer who’s become a hero to human rights advocates. Bale was in Beijing to promote the upcoming The Flowers Of War, Zhang Yimou’s film that has become the most expensive Chinese movie ever made, thanks to partial backing from a government-owned bank.
More importantly, it’s also the country’s official submission for the Academy Awards, and government officials, reportedly, have expressed hope that it will give China its first Oscar (sparking some fear they will then use this to synthesize their own Oscars—Oscars more powerful than we can possibly imagine). Accordingly, they’ve been making a big fuss over it, including hosting a première at one of Beijing’s biggest government buildings, and doing everything to roll out the very, very red carpet for Christian Bale and act like everything is awesome in China right now.
Unfortunately, then Bale went and ruined it all by straying off that red carpet, heading eight hours outside of town to a village in Shandong Province in search of Chen Guangcheng, the blind attorney who represented thousands of women who had been the victims of insane family planning measures, including forced sterilizations and abortions. In return, he was sentenced to four and a half years of house arrest on fabricated, ridiculous charges of destroying property and even inciting a traffic-blocking protest, all allegedly committed while he was already imprisoned in his house, awaiting trial. Since his conviction, many other people have tried and failed to meet Chen, and Bale was no different, despite being China’s favorite international movie star of the moment. A CNN crew was there to capture the encounter with the four guards stationed outside Chen’s property, which reporter Steven Jiang describes thusly: