When Guardian reporter Benjamin Joffe-Walt last saw Lu Banglie, the local democracy activist who was beaten by local thugs for leading him to Taishi village where villagers’ demands for democracy had caused such a ruckus the authorities had sealed off the area to journalists, here is how Joffe-Walt describes Lu’s physical condition: He lay there – his eye out of its socket, his tongue cut, a stream of blood dropping from his mouth, his body limp, twisted. The ligaments in his neck were broken, so his head lay sideways as if connected to the rest of his body by a rubber band.
Based on such a description, it seems implausible that a person could survive. But he did. Radio Free Asia has interviewed Lu. Here is an English summary. Here is the original Chinese audio.
See also: Activist found alive after beating by mob from the Guardian; and China activist survives beating from BBC.
