2023-08-10 22:02:05
Australian journalist Cheng Lei has been in prison in China for three years.
Image: Ng Han Guan/AP/dpa
Australian journalist Cheng Lei was arrested in China in August 2020. She is said to have disclosed state secrets abroad. In a letter she is now addressing the public for the first time.
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Australian journalist Cheng Lei has been detained in China since August 2020. She is accused of spreading state secrets abroad. In a letter, Cheng addresses the public for the first time since her imprisonment. In it she describes her longing for her home, family and nature. She hardly sees sunlight and hasn’t seen a tree in three years. Cheng was tried in March 2022. No verdict was passed. The Chinese government might use the detention of Cheng and another journalist as leverage in negotiations with the Australian government.
In August 2020, Australian journalist Cheng Lei was arrested in China, initially without reason. She was later accused of spreading state secrets abroad.
Now, Lei has addressed the public for the first time since her arrest. “I miss the sun,” the presenter dictated to diplomats in a letter addressed to the people of Australia. “I can’t believe I avoided the sun while living in Australia.”
“I miss the sun,” says Cheng. “In my cell, sunlight shines through the window, but I can only stand in it ten hours a year.” But it’s not just lack of sunlight. “I haven’t seen a tree in three years,” she adds.
A “love letter to 25 million people”
The journalist describes her lines as a “love letter to 25 million people”. This refers to the population of Australia. She raves regarding her time on the island. “I remember going camping with my family for the first time in 1987,” she writes.
In prison she would whisper the names of every place she had ever visited or even driven through in Australia.
In addition to her homeland, she longs for nature: “I relive every walk through the bushes, every river, every swim at the beach and every picnic to the psychedelic sunsets, the sky illuminated by the stars and the quiet, secret symphony of the bushes .»
Career in Chinese state television
She also misses salt water, sand between her toes and black humor. She seems to have retained her sense of humor. “When I’m back in Melbourne, it’ll probably rain for two weeks.” With all the nostalgia, Cheng saves the most important thing for last: “Most of all, I miss my children,” she writes at the end of the letter.
Cheng was born in China. When she was ten years old, her family immigrated to Australia. From 2003 to 2011 she was the China correspondent for CNBC. From 2012 until her arrest, she was a prominent news anchor for the English-language Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.
After being arrested in August 2020, Cheng spent six months in solitary confinement. Although she was already being interrogated at that time, no lawyer was made available to her.
Australian Prime Minister under pressure
What the journalist is accused of in detail, not even her own family knows. She was tried in camera in March last year. A request by Australian Ambassador Graham Fletcher to attend the trial was denied.
Although it has been more than a year since her trial, Cheng has still not been convicted. Observers suspect that the Chinese government is deliberately delaying the verdict in order to have leverage over the Australian government. In addition to Cheng, another Australian journalist, Yang Hengjun, has been imprisoned in China.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been invited to a meeting with China’s ruler Xi Jinping. He is under pressure at home not to accept the invitation until Cheng and Hengjun are free.
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