Christian Bale has been in China for the premiere of his movie, The Flowers of War, which is about the Rape of Nanking.
Yesterday the socially-minded actor attempted to visit the home of Chen Guangcheng, a civil rights activist who has been under house arrest for a year. Bale was accompanied by a CNN film crew and had driven eight hours to the activist’s home.
There, guards stopped Bale and the crew just outside the house. The Huffington Post:
When Bale approached Chen’s house, he was met by an escalating number of guards…. Punches were thrown and shoving ensued as he, along with the CNN camera crew, tried to push his way way through to the house.
According to CNN‘s current front page, a “high-speed car chase ensues.”
Here’s the kicker, according to HuffPo: The movie Flowers of War was funded, in part, by the Chinese government. It’s no wonder Bale expected to be given a “pass” to see the housebound Chinese activist.