Cheng Lei, an Australian journalist, who works for CGTN English language channel, has been formally arrested on February 5 confirms Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Monday. She was taken into custody in August by Beijing without giving any explanation and has been accused of "supplying state secrets overseas".
The mother-of-two stands accused of "illegally supplying state secrets overseas", Payne said in a statement, without providing details.
Lei was born in Hunan province. As a child, she emigrated to Australia, before returning to China and joining the state broadcaster in 2012.
If found to have broken China's national security laws, the journalist will endure serious punishment.
The Australian broadcaster ABC was told by Lei’s niece Louisa Wen that their family did not "understand anything about the case". Cheng’s 11-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son "don't fully understand the situation", adding that it had been quite tough on the kids wondering on what's going on, said Wen.
Cheng's detention came as relations between Australia and China plummeted. The timing and no information about charge’s on Cheng has raised speculations that her arrest was politically motivated or a result of vengeance.
Payne said the Australian government had "serious concerns" about Cheng’s detention. It also visited Cheng six times since she was confined and most recently on January 27. The Australian government has been regularly talking about Cheng’s detention at “senior levels” including her "welfare and conditions of detention".
Cheng was the second high-profile Australian citizen to be detained in Beijing, after writer Yang Hengjun was arrested in January 2019 on suspicion of spying. These arrests have caused fear in China’s foreign journalist community.
The Australian journalist had written several critical posts on Chinese President Xi Jinping and Beijing's approach to the coronavirus outbreak on Facebook. In one post she took a dig at Xi’s visit to Wuhan in March, the Covid-19 ground zero: "The big story today, Dear Leader's visit, triggered titters in the newsroom -- waving to a big TV screen showing the coronavirus hospital in Wuhan equals a visit."
Australian-China relations
Tensions between Australia and China have been high since 2020, especially after Canberra had called for an international inquiry into the root cause of the coronavirus pandemic, to which Beijing responded with trade counterattacks.
Australia's liberal use of foreign interference laws to block Chinese investments in sensitive sectors and to investigate Chinese influence on the country's public life has also been furiously reacted by Beijing.
China’s Foreign Ministry has said that Australia’s security agency had questioned Chinese journalists working in Australia, reported media agency Reuters.
Cheng's detainment came weeks after Australian authorities ransacked the homes of Chinese state media journalists. Bill Birtles and Michael Smith, two Australian journalists, have escaped China soon after being questioned about Cheng’s.