Christian Bale and CNN Crew Roughed Up in China While Trying to Visit Human Rights Activist

By Alex Weprin 

Actor Christian Bale is in China to promote a new movie he is in, and while there decided he wanted to approach human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng, who is under house arrest by Chinese authorities.

Bale contacted CNN and asked them to join him as he sought out Guanchcheng. A CNN spokesperson explains: “Chen Guangcheng is a newsworthy figure, particularly so within the last week, and as such it is in the interest of CNN’s global viewers to hear from him. Mr. Bale reached out to CNN and invited us to join him on his journey to visit Chen. This was our second effort to speak to Chen this year and we hope we will be able to do so in the future.”

Bale and the CNN International crew, including CNN’s Steven Jiang, were roughed up by security guards, and were followed by them for more than half an hour in a van:

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Bale appeared on CNN International to discuss what happened:

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