Chinese investigators formally arrested an Australian journalist who worked for China’s state television on suspicion of sharing national secrets, the Australian foreign minister said on Monday, a move likely to increase tensions between the two countries.
The journalist, Cheng Lei, worked as an anchor for a business program on China Global Television News, or CGTN, when she was arrested in August. China’s Foreign Ministry later revealed that Ms. Cheng had been charged with a national security crime, but gave no further details.
“Chinese authorities have reported that Ms. Cheng has been arrested on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets abroad,” Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a brief statement on Monday. She gave no other details.
“We hope that the basic standards of justice, procedural justice and humane treatment are met, in accordance with international standards,” added Ms. Payne.
Ms. Cheng, 45, was born in southern China’s Hunan province and migrated to Australia with her parents when she was a child. His arrest for such a politically charged charge comes as the two countries clash in a series of disputes that have brought relations to the lowest point in decades.
“I don’t think it’s about the bilateral relationship, although it doesn’t help her cause,” said Geoff Raby, a former Australian ambassador to Beijing who wrote about the deteriorating relationship, about Cheng’s arrest. The Chinese definition of state secrets is very broad, he said, adding: “Acquittals are rare in these cases.”
China’s penal code says that providing state secrets abroad should result in a prison sentence of five to 10 years, or longer in severe cases.
Australia’s ability to secure Ms. Cheng’s release through diplomacy appears frighteningly limited.
In recent years, Canberra has sought to prevent Beijing from influencing construction activities on Australian soil, including among the country’s large population of recent migrants from China. The Australian government also angered China by blocking the potential participation of Chinese technology giant Huawei in building Australia’s 5G network.
Last year, Australia led calls for an international investigation into the origins and course of the coronavirus pandemic, infuriating China, which has been sensitive to issues of its culpability at the source of the outbreak.
In turn, China has restricted imports of Australian products, including wine, coal and barley. The Chinese government has not described these actions as political retaliation, but few in Australia are convinced otherwise.
Ms. Cheng’s 11-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son are being cared for by her mother in Melbourne, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.
“I feel like children don’t fully understand the situation, so it’s probably very difficult for children to ask themselves what’s going on,” Louisa Wen, a niece of Ms. Cheng, told the network.
“We don’t understand anything about the case,” said Wen. “But we know that she has been in detention for five and a half months and that her conditions are getting worse.”
Before the case of Ms. Cheng, another Australian of Chinese descent, Yang Hengjun, faced accusations of espionage in China. Mr. Yang, a writer and businessman also known as Yang Jun, has been detained in China since early 2019 and last year was indicted for spying.
Two Canadians – Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman – are also awaiting trial in China on charges of espionage. Her supporters said Beijing was using them as pawns to coerce Canada into refusing to extradite a Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, to the United States, where she faces charges of fraud.
Ms. Cheng’s case was linked to that of two Australian journalists who left China abruptly in September, fearing detention. After a diplomatic standoff, journalists – Michael Smith, China’s correspondent for The Australian Financial Review; and Bill Birtles, a correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – were questioned by Chinese state security officials, including about Ms. Cheng.
Haze Fan, a member of the Chinese team at Bloomberg News in Beijing, was detained in the Chinese capital in December on suspicion of “criminal activities that endanger national security”, according to Bloomberg
Ms. Cheng first worked in business in Australia and China. As a CGTN journalist, she seemed eager to promote better relations between the two countries and highlighted China’s economic success story.
“Passionate speaker of China history, ”says the introduction on his Twitter account.
Last year, however, when the coronavirus pandemic was worse in China, Ms. Cheng made critical comments on her Facebook page about Chinese government officials. She scoffed at a Communist Party cadre who said that citizens should be grateful.
“Even in China, where the stock of material for satire never runs out, this is very rich,” she wrote. “In China, the ‘Do what I say, not what I do’ belief is deeply rooted in public office. ‘Serve the people,’ say the slogans. The reality is the opposite. “