Media Work / Press Releases and Statements / HRIC Welcomes German Intervention in Case of Three Gorges Activist

HRIC Welcomes German Intervention in Case of Three Gorges Activist

June 13, 2006

Human Rights in China (HRIC) welcomes intervention into the case of Three Gorges resettlement activist Fu Xiancai by the German government and media. Fu Xiancai was attacked by unknown persons on June 8 after local police questioned him over an interview with Fu broadcasted by German public television station Das Erste in May. Fu was hospitalized after the attack and is currently paralyzed from the shoulders down. On June 12, Jobst Plog, director general of Das Erste’s parent organization, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), and chairman of ARD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland), the joint organization of Germany’s public broadcasting agencies that includes Das Erste, sent a letter to Ma Canrong, China’s Ambassador to Germany, protesting the attack on Fu Xiancai.

Noting that NDR and its ARD Beijing Office would be in charge of covering the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Professor Plog writes, “I earnestly ask you to do everything in your power to ensure that Fu Xiancai gets all available and necessary medical treatment. I also would like you to use your influence to ensure that Chinese citizens do not have to fear for their health or lives in the future, just because they make a factual statement on German Television. Otherwise, any successful and constructive coverage of the People’s Republic of China will be impossible.”

Copies of the ARD letter were also sent to the German government and to the German embassy in Beijing. According to the German radio station Deutsche Welle, the German foreign ministry has since taken up Fu Xiancai’s case, and has demanded an explanation from the Chinese government through the German Embassy in Beijing.

The German intervention in Fu Xiancai’s case is a constructive effort to ensure that the international community’s Olympics participation is not marred by human rights violations. HRIC continues to call on the Chinese government to conduct a full and transparent investigation, especially since Fu is facing paralysis and cannot afford necessary medical treatment. Given the complicity of local authorities in the threats and attacks on Fu Xiancai, the Chinese authorities should make every effort to ensure that Fu receives whatever treatment is necessary to restore his health. HRIC also urges the international community and media to continue to monitor the human rights situation and advocate for greater respect for human rights in China.

In addition, HRIC would like to correct some information that was included in yesterday’s press release regarding Das Erste’s coverage of Fu Xiancai:

Das Erste has informed HRIC that the interview with Fu that Das Erste broadcasted in May was filmed by another party and made available to Das Erste. In addition, Das Erste’s Beijing correspondent did not appear at the hospital with a photographer following the assault on Fu Xiancai. Rather, a Das Erste journalist contacted people from Fu’s village to learn more of the situation, and was told that police surveillance on Fu’s hospital ward was preventing anyone but Fu’s wife from visiting him.