The Guardian
June 13, 2006

Three Gorges migrant-campaigner Fu Xiancai ‘was struck from behind on June 8. The blow broke his neck, leaving him paralysed from the neck down but able to speak. He is under 24-hour police surveillance in hospital in Yichang city.’

One of the most vocal opponents of the Three Gorges dam has been left reportedly paralysed by a savage beating after he ignored police warnings not to speak to foreign journalists. Fu Xiancai, a land-rights activist, was attacked by unknown assailants on his way home from the Zigui public security bureau in Hubei province, where he had been interrogated about an interview he gave to reporters from the German television station ARD. Mr Fu was struck from behind on June 8. The blow broke his neck, leaving him paralysed from the neck down but able to speak. He is under 24-hour police surveillance in hospital in Yichang city. According to the organisation Human Rights in China, Mr Fu had been warned by police and local officials that he would be severely punished for talking to foreign journalists and trying to petition the central government about the forced relocations that he and more than a million others have undergone to make way for the world’s biggest hydroelectric project.