Christian Bale attacked by Chinese officers during activist trip

Washington, Dec 17 (ANI): Christian Bale was roughed up by Chinese security guards when he attempted to meet an activist under home arrest.

The 'Dark Knight' star made an eight-hour car journey from Beijing to visit Chen Guangcheng, a blind human rights campaigner who has been detained in his home for 15 months, Contactmusic reported.

But on reaching a checkpoint near the village of Dongshigu, Bale and a CNN camera crew were jostled by plain-clothes officers and turned away.

In footage of the incident, Bale can be heard asking through a translator, "Why can I not visit this man?" as the officials attempted to grab the group's cameras.

The actor then went back to his vehicle to leave, but the guards did not allow him to go out of their sight and pursued him in a van for more than half an hour.

"What I really wanted to do was to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is," Bale said.

"I'm not brave doing this. The local people who are standing up to the authorities, who are visiting Chen and his family and getting beaten or detained, I want to support them," the actor stated.

"This doesn't come naturally to me, this is not what I actually enjoy - it isn't about me. But this was just a situation that said I can't look the other way," he added. (ANI)