Australian journalist Cheng Lei released from Chinese prison, arrives in Melbourne
Australian journalist Cheng Lei released from Chinese prison, arrives in Melbourne
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Cheng Lei arrived in Melbourne earlier today and has been reunited with her family after three years in detention.
Glad she could make it back home! I've been aware of her detention situation for years and it felt like she wasn't going anywhere from China within the next decade.
Yeah it often feels hopeless when someone gets locked up in one of these big authoritarian countries.
So she worked as a CCP propogandist, promoting an authoritarian government according to the narrative they want to push to the Western world, then she gets detained by the same authoritarian government she was happy to promote... and somehow this is surprising? I guess it's only surprising when it happens to you.
At the end of the day the right thing happened with release and hopefully she learned a valuable lesson along the way. Maybe those looking to shill for the CCP think twice from now on.
some good news this week finally!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ms Cheng was working as a broadcast journalist at Chinese state-owned media, CGTN when she was arrested on August 13, 2020, accused of "supplying state secrets overseas" — an allegation she rejected.
She was put in Residential Surveillance at a Dedicated Facility — a form of detention criticised by human rights groups in which detainees are unable to have contact with the outside world.
The ministry said it filed an investigation, then "the Beijing Municipal State Security Bureau took criminal compulsory measures against Cheng Lei in accordance with the law in August 2020".
When asked if Ms Cheng had been pardoned by the Chinese government, Mr Albanese said: "No, it [her sentence] was completed with time served in detention being taken into account."
Mr Albanese is expected to visit China by the end of the year, with the prime minister saying he is trying to find a "mutually agreeable time" with the Chinese government.
While Ms Cheng is now home safe, Mr Albanese could not provide an update on the fate of Australian man Yang Hengjun, who has been detained in China since 2019.
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