SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne informed that Australian Journalist Cheng Lei has been officially arrested in China having been in detention for six months. Lei was detained the grounds of illegally sharing state secrets overseas.
According to Payne, Cheng who was detained in mid-August of last year, was officially arrested on 5th February 2021. Cheng who often attended business gatherings and embassy functions for the Australian community in Beijing, was also a high-profile presenter on the Chinese State Medias English-Language Channel CGTN.
Payne said the Australian government “has raised its serious concerns about Ms. Cheng’s detention regularly at senior levels, including about her welfare and conditions of detention.”
Canberra’s request for an international investigation into the source of the corona virus pandemic and Beijing’s response with trade retaliations, has resulted in a strain in the relationship between the Australian and Chinese governments over the past year.
Australia’s former ambassador to China, Geoff Raby, said Cheng’s case “would seem to go beyond issues in the bilateral relationship”.
“Support for Lei is, however, made much more difficult in the absence of high-level contact between the governments,” Raby told Reuters.
According to Payne, during the Cheng’s detention, officials had made six visits the most recent visit being in January. Cheng has two children and nine and eleven and are at present living with family in Australia.
After Cheng’s detention in August was made public two Australian foreign correspondents were flown out of China assisted by officials of the Australian Consulate subsequent to questioning by China’s State Security Ministry.
Subsequently, it was made known by China’s Foreign Ministry that Australia’s security agency has in fact questioned Chinese Journalists working in Australia a few weeks prior to Chengs detention.
