Three Gorges Resettlement Activist Paralyzed After Assault

June 30, 2006

An unidentified assailant assaulted Three Gorges resettlement activist Fu Xiancai after he met with a public security official on June 8, according to a June 12 Human Rights in China (HRIC) press release, a June 13 HRIC press release, and a June 14 Associated Press (AP) article that appeared in the Guardian of London. Fu met with the official to discuss an interview that Fu gave in May to a German television station. According to HRIC sources, the official warned Fu at the meeting that his "oppositionist" interview "would not have good consequences." Fu is paralyzed from the shoulders down as a result of the assault and is currently under 24-hour police surveillance at the No. 1 People's Hospital in Yichang city, Hubei province. HRIC sources also report that authorities attempted to prevent the public release of news of Fu's assault and injury.

An unidentified assailant assaulted Three Gorges resettlement activist Fu Xiancai after he met with a public security official on June 8, according to a June 12 Human Rights in China (HRIC) press release, a June 13 HRIC press release, and a June 14 Associated Press (AP) article that appeared in the Guardian of London. Fu met with the official to discuss an interview that Fu gave in May to a German television station. According to HRIC sources, the official warned Fu at the meeting that his "oppositionist" interview "would not have good consequences." Fu is paralyzed from the shoulders down as a result of the assault and is currently under 24-hour police surveillance at the No. 1 People's Hospital in Yichang city, Hubei province. HRIC sources also report that authorities attempted to prevent the public release of news of Fu's assault and injury.

Fu has been the target of repeated official harassment as a result of his petitions expressing dissatisfaction with the resettlement and compensation terms for those displaced by the Three Gorges Dam Project, according to the June 12 HRIC press release. Fu was assaulted and threatened on approximately 10 different occasions in 2005 and 2006. In the German TV interview, Fu recalled being threatened and beaten because he complained to the central government that he had not received his promised relocation compensation, according to the June 14 AP article.

According to a China Newsweek article (in Chinese) posted by Xinhua in January 2006, forced evictions and other abuses of power have been the focal point of citizen petitions. Human Rights Watch released a December 2005 report that contains first-hand accounts of official abuses (including beatings and torture) against Chinese petitioners and notes that petitioners rarely succeed in obtaining redress. In 2005, the failure to resolve disputes over forced evictions and related abuses of power fueled mass protests in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, Taishi village, Guangdong province, and Dongzhoukeng village, Guangdong province.

For more information, see related CECC analyses on forced evictions resulting from the Three Gorges Dam Project and on beatings that local officials have authorized against rights defenders in the Taishi village dispute and Catholic nuns in a property dispute in Xi'an. See also Section III(g) on The Environment in the 2005 CECC Annual Report.