Associated Press
June 13, 2006

‘The attack on Fu Xiancai, a critic of the government’s treatment of people displaced by the Three Gorges dam project, raises questions about police complicity and highlights the risks Chinese rights campaigners face.’

A Chinese activist was struck by an assailant and left paralyzed after meeting with police to discuss an interview he gave on German television, a human rights group and a German broadcaster said Tuesday. The attack on Fu Xiancai, a critic of the government’s treatment of people displaced by the Three Gorges dam project, raises questions about police complicity and highlights the risks Chinese rights campaigners face. In an interview aired by German TV network ARD on May 19, Fu said he had been threatened and beaten for complaining to the government about not getting compensation he was promised for relocating, according to a letter from a German broadcaster, Norddeutscher Rundfunk. … Fu was "made out to be a ‘traitor’ because he spoke to foreign media," [NDR director Jobst] Plog said in the letter. He said the assailants were "members of a brigade of thugs." Germany instructed its embassy in Beijing to seek an explanation from China, Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said. He said respect for civil liberties and working conditions for foreign journalists are important to Germany.