Australian-Chinese journalist Cheng Lei to mark 1000 days in Beijing jail

As the Australian-Chinese journalist’s grim milestone looms this week, there’s no sign her case will be resolved anytime soon.

Journalist Cheng Lei with American rapper will.i.am.

Australian-Chinese journalist Cheng Lei will mark 1000 days behind bars this week and her partner, Nick Coyle, said her loneliness and inability to see her two children is “excruciating”.

Cheng, 47, was detained without explanation in August 2020 and just last week it was revealed a verdict in her case has been delayed for a fifth time, leaving her friends and family deeply frustrated.

On Wednesday the former TV anchor will have spent 1000 days holed up in detention in Beijing, unable to see or speak to her two children, who remain in Melbourne living with her mother.

She was detained by the Chinese Ministry of State Security after being charged with providing state secrets to foreign organisations.

Mr Coyle, 43, who lives in Port Moresby and is not the father of her children, has written a heartfelt piece in The Australian on Monday, revealing the pain Cheng suffers in detention and how her life drastically changed from someone whose days were previously “filled with social interaction” to suddenly being “stripped, literally of everything”.

The pair share letters with each other, allowing them to remain in contact, albeit infrequently.

“The only contact with the outside world was a 30-minute video consular visit, which started each month with Lei being led in, blindfolded and handcuffed, before being placed in a chair with a timber restraint to limit her movement during her 30 minutes of ‘freedom’,” he writes.

“To this day, I cannot adequately explain how she coped.”

Journalist Cheng Lei, left, on a work trip in Fiji.

Mr Coyle said the longing to see her children, aged 11 and 14, is “eternal” and never wavers.

“She wonders who their friends are and what they are doing each day,” Mr Coyle said.

“For a mother not to hear her children’s voices for 1000 days is excruciating.

“To not be able to be there for them is agonising.”

In newly released photos provided by Mr Coyle, Cheng can be seen enjoying her life and her career success while working at the state-run English-language channel, China Global Television Network in Beijing, prior to her arrest.

Cheng is even seen in a photo with one of her favourite musicians, American rapper, will.i.am.

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman has told The Australian that serious concerns are held about the repeated delays to the verdict being handed down in Cheng’s case, and the Australian government continues to advocate for her release.

Mr Coyle has urged authorities to do more to help fast track her case and find a resolution.

“One thousand days is a shockingly long time and I would call upon the relevant authorities in China to resolve this awful situation as quickly as possible,” he said.

“Fair-minded Australians, from business leaders to political leaders and the general public, do not accept the status quo.

“I took Ambassador Xiao Qian at his word in January when he expressed hope ‘that a solution will come as soon as possible’, and five months later we are still waiting.

“For Lei and her children’s sake, I hope this solution will be found urgently.”

Cheng’s most recent visit by Australian consular officials was on April 26 and despite the heartache she has endured behind bars, Mr Coyle writes that her “irreverent Aussie humour is still firmly intact”.

“She jokes about a new marketing strategy for the detention centre, extolling its benefits for those who hate their family, are on the run from organised crime or suffer from haphephobia,” he writes.

Western Australian premier Mark McGowan recently raised Cheng’s case with China’s ministry of foreign affairs, Ma Zhaoxu, during a visit to China and despite initially saying he would not be discussing her imprisonment with officials.