The Australian government yesterday said that it remained seriously concerned about the welfare of a Chinese-born Australian journalist a year after she was first detained in China.
Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne used the first anniversary of Cheng Lei’s (成蕾) detention on Aug. 13 last year to tell China that Australia expected “basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment to be met, in accordance with international norms.”
“The Australian government remains seriously concerned about Ms Cheng’s detention and welfare and has regularly raised these issues at senior levels,” Payne said in a statement. “We are particularly concerned that one year into her detention, there remains a lack of transparency about the reasons for Ms Cheng’s detention.”
Photo: AFP / Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade / Australia Global Alumni
In February, China formally arrested the 46-year-old journalist for CGTN, the English-language channel of China Central Television, on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas.
The allegations, which could result life in prison or even death, are highly unusual for an employee of a media firm tightly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Cheng’s two children, aged 10 and 12, live with their grandmother in Melbourne.
The National Press Clubs of the US and Australia as well as the reporter’s former CGTN colleagues and friends have recently written open letters calling for her immediate release.
“Cheng Lei’s yearlong detention is an assault on journalism and on human rights. Cheng is a single mother of two. Her children have been living with their grandmother in Australia without knowing if they will ever be reunited with their mother,” a US National Press Club statement said. “China has tried to make Cheng disappear, but the world has not forgotten about her or the several dozen other reporters unjustly jailed in China.”
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