SYDNEY: Canberra on Monday demanded that China release a jailed Australian journalist and allow her to reunite with her family, as the broadcaster spent 1,000 days in prison in China.
Cheng Lei is a former anchor at CGTN, a Chinese state broadcaster who disappeared on August 13, 2020, and was later booked for allegedly supplying state secrets abroad.
Penny Wong, Australia’s foreign minister, raised “deep concerns” over what many see as politically motivated delays in Lei’s case. Despite spending so much time apart from her family, Wong praised the woman for her resilience and determination. “All Australians want to see her with her kids,” one person said. Lei, a mother of two, is just one of several foreign nationals who China has jailed while their nations locked horns with Beijing.
Wong suggested that the fate of Australian nationals imprisoned in China was a stumbling block as the two nations tried to repair relations.
Nick Coyle, a close friend of Lei, has written an emotional letter requesting her release. “Now, after 1000 days, we still don’t know why she was taken and charged with intentionally vague national security breaches, or when she can be with us again,” he wrote a piece on Monday for The Australian newspaper.
In this case, her two children, who were then nine and eleven, were “the other victims of the opaque Chinese legal system.” Lei has had little contact with the outside world since going missing, only receiving monthly consular visits.
