Australia has voiced “serious concerns” over the delays in the case of a Chinese-Australian journalist who has been held in China on national security allegations for more than two and a half years. Although facing a closed-door trial in Beijing on March 31, 2022, Cheng Lei, a former television anchor with China’s state-run TV station CGTN, has yet to receive a judgment or punishment. Notwithstanding an arrangement between Canberra and Beijing that allows consular access to Australian nationals, Australian diplomats were barred from attending the proceedings against Cheng, a mother of two, on national security concerns.
“Today marks one year since Ms Cheng Lei, an Australian citizen, underwent a closed trial in Beijing on national security accusations.” “She is still waiting to hear the outcome of the trial after a year,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement on Friday. “We share Ms Cheng’s family and friends’ serious worry about the continuous delays in her case.” Today, our thoughts are with Ms Cheng and her family, particularly her two children.” Wong went on to say that the Australian government has persistently fought for Cheng’s reunion with her family in Melbourne, and has “provided basic standards of justice, procedural fairness, and compassionate treatment in accordance with international norms.” Cheng was questioned by officials in August 2020 before being formally arrested six months later on charges of “illegally providing state secrets overseas.” Press freedom advocates have decried Cheng’s arrest and demanded her immediate release. Wong raised similar worries in January regarding the trial of Chinese-Australian writer and blogger Yang Hengjun, who has been jailed in China since 2019 on national security allegations.
China has denied allegations of unfair treatment of Australian nationals and has urged Canberra to respect its “judicial sovereignty.” The lawsuits are among a series of squabbles that have damaged Australia-China ties in recent years. Relations between the parties have cooled slightly since the election of the center-left Labor Party in May, which ended almost a decade of conservative dominance. After more than two years of trade restrictions, China resumed allowing cargoes of Australian coal last month, discharging 72,000 tons of the fuel at a port in the southern city of Zhanjiang.
