Australian journalist Cheng Lei, detained for more than three years in China, has been released, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Wednesday (October 11), adding that she was now back in Melbourne.
“The Australian people very much wanted Cheng Lei to be reunited with her young children,” the leader said, adding that the journalist was “delighted” to have returned home.
Ms. Cheng, 48, a former presenter for Chinese public broadcaster CGTN, had been detained since August 2020. Officially accused of “providing state secrets abroad,” Ms. Cheng was tried behind closed doors in 2022, and even the Australian ambassador to China was barred from entering the court to observe the proceedings.
Mr Albanese said she was released by Beijing after “the completion of legal proceedings in China”. Cheng Lei, born in China, emigrated to Australia as a child before returning to her country of birth.
Critical messages towards Xi Jinping
A well-known face on CGTN, Ms. Cheng carried out interviews with business leaders from around the world. She previously worked for nine years in China for the American channel CNBC.
Before her arrest, the journalist had published a number of messages on Facebook critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese authorities’ management of the coronavirus crisis.
The detention of the journalist marked a new stage in the deterioration of relations between China and Australia, which Beijing considers a pawn of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region. Ties were particularly strained when Canberra called for an international investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, first detected in China in late 2019.
