Chinese authorities formally arrested detained Australian citizen Cheng Lei “on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets abroad”, which led to further calls for the journalist to be treated humanely.
Cheng, an anchor of the Chinese state-owned English news channel China Global Television Network, has been detained in China since mid-August, but the decision to proceed to the next phase of the criminal proceedings is a blow to her hopes of release.
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the Australian government was informed that Cheng had been formally arrested in China on Friday, about six months after his arrest.
“Chinese authorities have reported that Ms. Cheng has been arrested on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets abroad,” Payne said in a statement released on Monday.
Amid ongoing diplomatic and trade tensions between the two countries, Payne also revealed that Australian embassy officials have visited Cheng six times since his arrest, the latest on January 27.
She said the Australian government “has expressed serious concerns about Ms. Cheng’s detention regularly at high levels, including her welfare and conditions of detention.”
Payne said Australia expects “basic standards of justice, procedural justice and humane treatment to be met, in line with international standards”.
At a subsequent press conference, Payne said that Australian authorities would maintain close contact with Chinese authorities on the case and “provide all possible support” to Cheng.
“Our thoughts are with Ms. Cheng and her family during this difficult period,” she said.
Peter Greste, an Australian journalist who became a defender of press freedom after his own detention in Egypt for more than a year, called for Cheng’s immediate release.
“China’s record-breaking record is already deeply worrying,” said Greste, a spokesman for Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, on Monday.
“In the absence of evidence, Cheng’s arrest only adds to the impression that Beijing is not concerned with press freedom. His case is a clear warning to other journalists to support the government or to risk being arrested as well. ”
The comment was requested at the Chinese embassy in Canberra.
Cheng – who was born in China but later became an Australian citizen – worked as a news anchor on a business program at CGTN. She has been detained in China since August 13 last year.
Human rights observers raised concerns about Cheng’s well-being, as she was initially taken to “residential surveillance in a designated location”.
This is a form of coercive custody that allows the Chinese public security ministry and the state security ministry to bypass common criminal proceedings and keep subjects in undisclosed locations without formal arrest, prosecution, trial or access to a lawyer, for up to six months.
Payne’s statement on Monday is not the first time the Australian government has made public developments on the case.
The Australian government first revealed on September 1 that Cheng had been detained in Beijing – two weeks after Australia was notified.
In early September, two Australian foreign correspondents in China, ABC’s Bill Birtles and Australian Financial Review’s Michael Smith, urgently returned home after a tense diplomatic stalemate.
The two left China after being questioned by China’s Ministry of State Security. They were told they were people of interest in Cheng’s investigation.
At the time, Birtles told ABC that the episode appeared to be “a harassment of the remaining Australian journalists” and not a “genuine effort to try to get anything useful” in the case against Cheng.
At the same time, China’s state-run media published details of alleged Australian authorities hitting Chinese journalists in Australia – dating from the end of June. This episode would be related to an investigation of foreign interference.
On September 8, China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Cheng was being held for national security reasons, but gave no further details.
Concerns were also raised about the plight of Australian writer Dr. Yang Hengjun, who has been detained by Chinese authorities since early 2019. Yang rejected the espionage charges, saying he is “innocent and will fight to the end”.
Amid a split in diplomatic relations, Australia updated its travel notice to China in early July to say that Chinese authorities have detained foreigners for alleged national security reasons and that Australians may be at risk of arbitrary detention.
China updated its travel advice at the same time to say that Australian law enforcement agencies “made arbitrary searches of Chinese citizens and seized their articles”.