Lu Banglie is alive

It seems that reports of Lu Banglies death (including my own) have been greatly exaggerated. He was interviewed on Radio Free Asia this morning, and described his beating and his subsequent delivery to hospital:

“Someone splashed cold water on me and I regained consciousness for a second but then passed out again. When I came to, I was in a moving vehicle. My head was hurting very badly. I started throwing up,” he said.

After he had vomited several times, the men offered him food, and then dumped him at the Zhijiang Hotel, contacting the Zhijiang parliament as they left. Two parliamentary officials then took Lu to hospital, suggesting to him that he should blame Taishi villagers for the attack.

“I don’t know who beat me. They were wearing plain clothes. But later I was told by people from the Zhijiang People’s Congress that they were villagers. They even asked me, ‘Don’t you think the farmers down there are violent and barbaric?’ I was still in a daze at the time, but I remember replying, ‘It’s not the peasants who are barbaric. It’s the government.’ They smiled.”

Looking at my atlas, Zhijiang is a long way from Taishi, and someone seems to have gone to some effort to get him to safety.

There are no details on Lu's injuries.