South China Morning Post
August 9, 2006

While Three Gorges anti-corruption activist Fu Xiancai says he was attacked after talking to German TV, police say he fell down a slope.

While Fu Xiancai says he was attacked after talking to German TV, police say he fell down a slope Yichang, Hubei province: The spot where police say anti-corruption activist Fu Xiancai slipped and fell in June, smashing three vertebrae and leaving him paralysed, is in full view of the recently opened Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province . The proximity is symbolic, since it is the dam that marked the beginning of Mr Fu’s troubles. Mr Fu, 47, is a well-known campaigner against local officials who he accuses of stealing compensation money from some of the 1.2 million people moved to make way for the dam’s rising waters. He says he did not slip on the narrow, steep path on the morning of June 8 but was attacked by a lone assailant wielding a stick. The dispute pits Mr Fu’s word against that of the police, who have taken the unusual step of calling in forensic experts from Beijing to produce a report refuting his allegations. Police say a stick was found next to Mr Fu, but it was too thin to have been used to beat him. They say Mr Fu slipped down a 4.6-metre, brush-covered slope before falling 4.8 metres onto a concrete path below. Flattened bushes, and grass and earth marks on Mr Fu’s shoe, prove he slipped, they say.