China: Fu Xiancai, an activist whose efforts to represent people displaced by China's Three Gorges Dam earned him official condemnation and may have led to his neck being broken by unknown assailants as he walked home from a police interview, had emergency surgery yesterday. It has saved his life, although specialists say he is unlikely to walk again.
The operation took place at the No 1 People's Hospital in Yichang, a city near the Three Gorges Dam project in Hubei province. Sources close to Mr Fu said the procedure had successfully stabilised his condition. His long-term prospects are not good, however, because of the extent of the damage to his spine.
Mr Fu has lobbied tirelessly to secure compensation for some of the million people resettled to make way for the 185m dam, which opened last month.
On June 8th, Mr Fu was interrogated by the Public Security Bureau in his home county of Zigui about an interview he gave to German TV, in which he told of being threatened repeatedly for complaining to local and provincial officials about inadequate compensation for the dispossessed. Local police chief Wang Qiankui reportedly criticised Mr Fu for his television appearance.
On his way home from the police station, an unknown assailant hit Mr Fu from behind with a heavy object and left him unconscious on the side of the road. The blow was so hard it fractured his neck, badly damaging several vertebrae.
Neighbouring villages reportedly organised fundraising events but were stopped from collecting money by police.
Specialists in Beijing said Mr Fu will probably need special treatment from now on, which will prove a major burden on his family.
Human rights groups and the German government have demanded an investigation and punishment for those responsible. China's foreign ministry has said it is looking into the incident.
The German embassy in Beijing sent a team to see Mr Fu on Thursday and he was given €6,000 to help fund the surgery. A doctor with the team was not allowed to examine him and the team was only allowed to meet Mr Fu for a few minutes. They returned the next day but plainclothes police stationed outside the hospital room only allowed them to say brief goodbyes and have since banned any non-family visitors, according to his son.