Australian Journalist Cheng Lei, Jailed In China, Returns Home After 3 Years

Journalist Cheng Lei returned home to Australia on Wednesday after being released from about three years of detention in China, BBC reported. Ms Lei, 48, who worked for the international department of China's state broadcaster, was reunited with her two children and family in Melbourne. 

''Her return brings an end to a very difficult few years for her family. The government has been seeking this for a long period of time and her return will be warmly welcomed not just by her family and friends but by all Australians," Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, describing her as a ''strong and resilient person''.

He also shared an update on Twitter, ''I am pleased to confirm that Ms Cheng Lei has arrived safely home in Australia, and has been reunited with her two children and her family. I spoke with her on the phone this afternoon. This is an outcome the Australian government has been seeking for a long time.''

I am pleased to confirm that Ms Cheng Lei has arrived safely home in Australia, and has been reunited with her two children and her family.

I spoke with her on the phone this afternoon. This is an outcome the Australian government has been seeking for a long time. pic.twitter.com/ukcoSR9oE3

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) October 11, 2023

Her release follows the completion of the legal process in China, according to the Australian statement. After she was back home, Ms Cheng posted an emotional message on X, on Wednesday night. '

''Tight hugs, teary screams, holding my kids in the spring sunshine. Trees shimmy from the breeze. I can see the entirety of the sky now! Thank you Aussies,'' she wrote. 
 

“Tight hugs, teary screams, holding my kids in the spring sunshine. Trees shimmy from the breeze. I can see the entirety of the sky now! Thank you Aussies.” pic.twitter.com/WJ5vAYsMgZ

— FreeChengLei (@FreeChengLei) October 11, 2023

Notably, the former anchor for Chinese state broadcaster CGTN was arrested in 2020, and was formally charged with "supplying state secrets overseas". Her detention took place against a backdrop of strained ties between Canberra and Beijing. 

Beijing had accused her of providing state secrets to a foreign country, but details of the accusations were never previously made clear. She was put in Residential Surveillance at a Dedicated Facility in which detainees are unable to have contact with the outside world. She spent the first six months of her detention in solitary confinement without charge. Last March, she was tried in secret in a Chinese court where she denied the allegations levelled against her. 

China's Ministry of State Security said in a statement on Wednesday that Ms Cheng had been deported after serving her full sentence of two years and 11 months. It said she had pleaded guilty to the charges.

In August this year, she described her bleak prison conditions in a candid note dictated to Australian officials from her cell.

"I miss the sun. In my cell, the sunlight shines through the window, but I can stand in it for only 10 hours a year. I can't believe I used to avoid the sun when I was living back in Australia… It'll probably rain the first two weeks I'm back in Melbourne. I haven't seen a tree in three years," she said.

As per BBC, Ms Cheng, born in China, migrated with her family to Melbourne, when she was 10 for her father to pursue a PhD program. She later returned to China and joined CGTN in 2012.

Ms Cheng is the second high-profile Australian citizen to be detained in Beijing after writer Yang Hengjun was arrested in January 2019 on suspicion of espionage.