Actor Christian Bale roughed up attempting to see Chinese pro-life dissident
Cool. I have new found respect for the man. From the Los Angeles Times, today:
All Christian Bale wanted to do was tell a guy thank you, he said – but instead he got roughed up by a pack of apparent security guards and chased away from the home where a Chinese dissident has been held under house arrest for months.
“What I really wanted to do was shake the man’s hand and say thank you, tell him what an inspiration he is,” Bale said after the incident, which concluded with his party’s van being chased down the road by guards who jumped into their own vehicle and followed for more than half an hour.
“The man” Bale referred to is Chen Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer and activist who has worked against China’s methods for enforcing its one-child policy – think forced abortion and sterilization. According to World Now, he has been kept under unofficial house arrest with his wife, mother and young daughter since September, when he was released after four years in prison related to charges he said he was not guilty of.
It was at that house that Bale was confronted and manhandled.
CNN caught it all on video…
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRuqdMwBqvQ[/youtube]
MSM coverage of the incident has been interesting.
LA Times blog World Now rightfully described Chen as a “human rights activist” in the first paragraph. It is not until the 9th of 11th paragraph did WN explain the specific human rights Guangcheng is championing against were “forced abortions and sterilizations,” an outcome of China’s one-child policy.
Similarly, The Guardian called Chen a “human rights lawyer,” waiting until the 7th paragraph to say “Chen angered authorities by helping women who had suffered forced abortions and sterilisations.”
CNN’s story never mentioned the word “abortion,” saying Chen got into trouble for trying to help “victims of abusive practices of China’s family-planning officials.
Neither did the Huffington Post utter the A-word, calling Chen a “women’s rights activist.”
The Associated Press opened its story by calling Chen “a blind activist,” although in the 6th paragraph getting the story right, stating Chen “angered authorities after documenting forced late-term abortions and sterilizations and other abuses by overzealous authorities trying to meet population control goals in his rural community.”
Good for Bale. What he did came at some risk to himself and his career, as reported Reuters:
CNN said that Mr. Bale, in China for the premiere of his latest film The Flowers of War made by Chinese director Zhang Yimou, approached the news network to try to meet Mr. Chen.
They took an eight-hour car journey to Mr. Chen’s village from Beijing.
“This doesn’t come naturally to me,” Mr. Bale said to CNN. “But this was just a situation, I said, I can’t look the other way.”…
It was not clear if the incident would have any impact on The Flowers of War, which is China’s Oscar entry for next year, or the release of Mr. Bale’s new Batman film in the country….
Mr. Bale said: “It’s amazing that a superpower like China is actually terrified of this man and shows such an intrinsic weakness within the fabric of the country.”
“This kind of treatment… represents the power structure and their attitudes towards their own citizens, which is disgusting,” he said.
Internet users took to the Twitter-like microblogging service Weibo to applaud Mr. Bale’s visit to see the “blind man”. Authorities have blocked searches for “Chen Guangcheng.”…
As a young boy, Mr. Bale starred in Empire of the Sun, a film set in the Second World War about a British family in Shanghai.
Pro-Life activist Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights without Frontiers has championed Chen’s case.
[Top photo via The Globe and Mail]

But…Christian Bale is a Brit! And a major Hollywood A-lister! Is he not pro-abortion? Or, if he is, what brought this on? I mean, yes, the major portion of me is jumping-up-and-down happy about him using his star power to highlight this issue, but there is a huge part of me that is really, really surprised. Good surprised, certainly, but I am totally blown away.
Still…I always knew I was a Batman fan. ;)
I didn’t know about this new film, book-ending “Empire of the Sun”, in a way. I love its theme song – an old Welsh lullaby called “Suo Gan”. It has lyrics worthy of a pro-life site, as you will see.
youtube.com/watch?v=IKbg7RmW8Y
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suo_Gan
Good for him. Really, really good for him. To see such a gifted actor stand firm against the political winds of Pinewood, Hollywood, or Bollywood is truly an inspiration.
God bless him! i just might check out his movies!;)
I wouldn’t assume that Christian Bale is pro-life just because he wanted to meet with this man. Even the most pro-choice would stand against forced abortions.
This was so staged. I like CB as an actor, he’s great, but this is staged. Just more acting. If he were serious about seeing this guy he would have made a plan and made it happen. Or he’s a lazy idiot.
he’s not listed on the list of actors/actresses that support planned parenthood on the life decisions international website…so its possible he does care.
Of course when Hollywood is corrupt,its hard to find a true humanitarian who is against ALL abortion as well as helping others.
Christian Bale played Teddy Laurence in the 1994 version of LITTLE WOMEN. I LOVE that movie!
@Liz: Bale’s dad was married to Gloria Steinem for several years, before he died. Perhaps she pushed too hard? Or maybe he is a hardcore pro-abort who had one good moment. I can’t find him making a statement one way or the other on the issue anywhere at the moment. :(
Cooper, I don’t know if you’ll check back on this thread, but you are wrong. Right here on Jill Stanek’s blog we’ve had many pro-abortion people comment about the subject, and sadly some of the comments were pro-forced abortions. One commenter even remarked that since Chinese women knew the law, they got what they deserved.
I wish it weren’t so, but it is.
I don’t see the issue here. Christian Bale is not alone or unique in his objection. While there are certainly idiots on all sides of the debate, it is highly disingenuous to suggest that any notable contingent of advocates for women’s reproductive freedom do not outrightly condemn the Chinese government’s use of forced abortions to maintain its One Child Policy. In the defense of women’s reproductive CHOICE, forcing a woman to abort her pregnancy is just as objectionable as forcing her to carry it to term. In principle, they’re the same. Ironically, the horror that anti-abortion advocates feel about China’s policies are exactly how the pro-choice camp feels about the prospect of criminalizing abortion.