Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong says she remains deeply concerned over the continuing detention of China-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who has been imprisoned for nearly three years.
Cheng was arrested by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities in 2020 on charges of “illegally supplying state secrets overseas.”
She had been working at the time of her arrest as a news anchor for China Global Television Network and was in prison for 19 months prior to her closed-door trial last year. Cheng is still awaiting the outcome of those proceedings.
“Today marks one year since Australian citizen Ms. Cheng Lei faced a closed trial in Beijing on national security charges. 12 months on, she is still waiting to learn the outcome of the trial,” Wong said.
“We share the deep concerns of Ms. Cheng’s family and friends about the ongoing delays in her case. Our thoughts today are with Ms. Cheng and her loved ones, particularly her two children.”
Cheng’s two young children and family reside in the southern Australian city of Melbourne in Victoria. But, according to Cheng’s partner, Nick Coyle, she has not been able to contact them regularly.
The foreign minister also said that the federal government had advocated at every opportunity for Cheng to be reunited with her young family.
“Australia has consistently called for Ms. Cheng to be afforded basic standards of justice, procedural fairness, and humane treatment in accordance with international norms.”
CCP Authorities Blocking Consular Access to Cheng
CCP authorities have regularly denied Australian consulate staff contact with Cheng, with Coyle telling the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that she has only had two face-to-face consular visits during her 31-month detention.“This is deeply concerning, unsatisfactory, and very regrettable,” Fletcher told reporters at the time.
Victorian Premier Criticised For his Failure to Speak Up
The statement from the foreign minister stands in stark contrast to the actions of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews who has been criticised for his decision not to speak up for Cheng during his current diplomatic visit to Beijing.Andrews is the first Australian premier to officially visit China since 2019. The four-day trip has been shrouded in secrecy with no journalists invited to accompany him.
Prior to travelling to Beijing, Andrews told the press that he would not be raising the issue of Cheng Lei with his Chinese hosts as the topic was “too sensitive” and not appropriate.
Andrews has been noted for his close association with the CCP, signing Victoria up for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Then-federal opposition Labor leader Prime Minister Anthony Albanese eventually supported the move saying: “A government I led would not be signing up to the Belt and Road Initiative.”
“Lei’s a Victorian,” he said. “So, I would have thought it is entirely appropriate for the premier to raise concerns that he might have had.”
Coyle noted that the Albanese government and Foreign Minister Wong had routinely raised her case, and he would have thought that the premier could have joined in helping one of his constituents.
“I think if these things are done carefully and obviously done in consultation with the federal government that there’s no reason why the premier couldn’t be raising Lei’s case. I think it is important that her case is raised as consistently and at a higher level as possible as much as we can,” Coyle said.