The Chinese government believes “The Dark Knight Rises” star Christian Bale should feel embarrassed by his recent attempt to visit a human rights activist in an Eastern Chinese village. Click below to see the actual footage of the actor being confronted by chinese authorities.
While in the country to promote his latest movie “The Flowers of War,” the actor drove eight hours to visit Chen Guangcheng, a blind human rights lawyer under house arrest. Government thugs roughly prevented Bale from seeing Chen and a CNN film crew caught the confrontation on camera.
Asked if China was embarrassed by the bad publicity, though, a Foreign Ministry spokesman countered that it was Bale who should feel ashamed.
“He was not invited to create a story or shoot film in a certain village,†said Liu Weimin in an official statement. “I think if you want to make up news in China, you will not be welcome here.”
A self-taught lawyer, Chen campaigned against government-forced sterilizations and late-term abortions. He was imprisoned for disrupting traffic and attacking government offices, charges his supporters claim are fabricated. Chen is currently living under house arrest in his home village of Dongshigu.
“Christian has been following [Chen’s] story and was moved by it, and just wanted to see if there was a way to help him,” a representative for Bale, “told the News last week.
The Oscar-winning actor was met at the outskirts of town by government-backed guards who ordered him to leave and slapped away his video camera.
Bale managed to keep his cool during the brief scuffle despite a reputation for throwing epic tantrums. The actor was briefly arrested for assaulting his mother and sister at a London hotel and famously screamed at a crew member who had accidentally walked in the frame during the filming of 2009’s “Terminator Salvation.”
“I’m not being brave doing this,” Bale told CNN after his attempted visit to Chen’s home. “The local people who are standing up to the authorities and insisting on [visiting] Chen and his family and getting beating up for it [ARE]. I want to support what they’re doing.â€
Bale flew to China to attend the opening ceremony of his latest film “The Flowers of War,†which is China’s official submission for the best foreign language film Oscar.
The movie, directed by Zhang Yimou (“Raise the Red Lantern”), is set during Japan’s 1937 invasion of the Chinese city Nanjing and has been criticized by some as Chinese government propaganda. “War” has taken four years and $94 million to get to the screen and opens in New York Wednesday.
