Batman’s Christian Bale had less than a superhero’s welcome from the Chinese this week. In China to promote his new movie, The Flowers of War, which depicts the brutal Japanese occupation of Nanking in 1937, Bale was roughed up by government-backed guards when he tried to visit a renowned human rights activist who has been under house arrest for 15 months.
The incident was captured on camera by a CNN camera crew accompanying the Oscar-winning actor and figures to be another PR problem for the Chinese government which has been fully supportive of Bale’s latest project.
The government has yet to officially react to news of Bale’s tussle with guards, although the news was largely blocked from the Internet in China.