Cheng Lei
China has formally arrested an Australian citizen who was previously a news anchor for Chinese state television, escalating a case that contributed to tensions between Beijing and Canberra.
Cheng Lei, a Chinese-born Australian who recently worked for state broadcaster CGTN, was formally arrested in China on Feb. 5 after six months in detention, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne’s office said in a statement on Monday. Chinese authorities have said Cheng was “arrested on suspicion of illegally disclosing state secrets abroad” statement said.
China had said in September that Cheng was “suspected of committing criminal activities that endanger China’s national security, ”one of the most serious allegations ever against a foreign journalist based in the country.
She was detained in mid-August under a provision that allowed her to detain as much as six months without charge or access to a lawyer.
Australian Embassy officials have visited Cheng six times since her detention – most recently on January 27 – in accordance with a bilateral consular agreement with China, the statement said.
Australia “has regularly expressed serious concerns about Ms. Cheng’s detention at a high level, including her welfare and conditions of detention,” the statement said. “We expect basic standards of fairness, procedural fairness and humane treatment to be met, in accordance with international standards.”
Rising tensions
The case came to light amid deteriorating relations between China and Australia, sparking fears that Beijing had targeted Cheng to put pressure on Canberra. Tensions rose after Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s administration in April called for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, a move seen in China as supportive of US President Donald Trump’s efforts to blame it on the pandemic.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government imposed tariffs on Australian barley, banned products from a number of meat factories and launched an anti-dumping investigation into wine exports. Still, China remains Australia’s largest trading partner, driven by the country’s hunger for resources such as iron ore and coal.
Cheng has been hosting corporate shows as a CGTN anchor since 2012 and was well known among the small circle of diplomats and journalists in Beijing. She had previously been a China correspondent for CNBC after graduating from the University of Queensland with a bachelor’s degree in commerce and a stint as an accountant at Cadbury Schweppes, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Cheng’s detention also coincided with a specific dispute between Australia and China over attempts by each other’s spy agencies to question foreign journalists. China withdrew four state media journalists from Australia after authorities raided their homes, while two Australian correspondents left China after state security agents searched them for questioning.
One of the Australian journalists, Mike Smith of the Australian Financial Review, said in September that Chinese officials, among other things, asked him about Cheng before he was allowed to leave. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said separately that the cases of the Australian journalists and Cheng were unrelated to the raids on the homes of Chinese journalists.
– With help from Jason Scott and James Mayger