New hope for detained Australian Cheng Lei in China

Chinese ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian has expressed “sympathy” for Cheng Lei and her family, saying he would advocate for family visits on her behalf.

Beijing’s ambassador to Australia has declared he feels “sympathy” for detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who has been held inside China’s secretive Ministry of State Security prison for the past two years on national security grounds, saying he would advocate for family visits on her behalf.

Speaking to the ABC about Ms Cheng, who was the subject of The Daily Telegraph’s exclusive documentary Disappeared: The Cheng Lei Story, Ambassador Xiao Qian said: “Personally, I have sympathy to her family, her kids and their relatives that they are faced with such a difficult situation.”

Ms Cheng has not seen her two children, currently living in Melbourne with relatives, since her arrest in August, 2020, when she was mysteriously arrested while she was working as a business journalist and broadcaster for Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.

“In case with the procedure in the jurisdiction … not much we can do, but on the humanitarian basis, I have been trying to see if I can be help as ambassador to facilitate a possible much easier access either with between her and her relatives or her, the Australian embassies based on humanitarian considerations.”

Thus far, Ms Cheng has only been allowed monthly thirty minute visits via video conference with Australian consular officials, though Mr Xiao claimed the consulate could see her “weekly”.

Australian-Chinese Journalist Cheng Lei was accused of leaking state secrets. Pictured: Supplied

The Daily Telegraph recently revealed exclusive details of those visits and her conditions in China’s prisons where she has sought to keep herself going by teaching her fellow inmates English and about Australian culture.

Ms Cheng was tried in a secretive trial on charges relating to passing state secrets overseas in March, 2022.

Ms Lei pictured with partner Nick Coyle. Picture: Facebook

Her Beijing apartment. Picture: Supplied

The brief trial is understood to have lasted no more than three hours and saw Australia’s ambassador to China sensationally barred by security officials at the front door of the courthouse.

With no verdict or sentence so far handed down, Mr Xiao claimed that the trial was “ongoing” and that the state had enough evidence to convict Ms Cheng.

“The trial is going on, the trial is going on, because it is relating to something like the national security, so it’s conducting in a way it’s not open to the public,” Mr Xiao said.

“It doesn't mean there is no evidence. There is evidence.”

Sources close to Ms Cheng and her family said they were unconvinced that the change in tone would lead to an immediate change in the conditions of her detention, with one saying, “we’ll see what (the ambassador) can do.”

During her career, Ms Lei worked as a prominent news anchor in China. Picture: Supplied

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese backed the ambassador’s efforts to get Ms Lei more access to her family, slamming the Chinese government for having no “transparency”.

“Cheng Lei should have access to her family. Australia continues to make representation and we have a very strong view about her treatment, and we'll continue to make representation,” he said.

“There’s been no transparency in any of these processes at all and the Chinese Government needs to do better.”

Mr Albanese said he was “open to” a sideline discussion with the Chinese Premier at the G20 in Indonesia.

“I'm open to dialogue with anyone at any time, particularly with leaders of other nations,” he said.

“It’s a good thing if there is dialogue, and certainly, if such a meeting took place I would welcome it as I welcome dialogue with leaders throughout the region and throughout the globe.”