Detained journalist Cheng Lei was barely able to stand, enjoy natural light in China detention

Journalist Cheng Lei reveals her torment behind bars in a Beijing prison, including being unable to stand up or see natural light.

Cheng Lei appearing on Sky News Australia.

Australian journalist Cheng Lei has broken her silence and revealed the horror she endured while remaining behind bars in China for three years where she said she was barely able to stand up or even see natural light.

During her imprisonment Cheng said she spent, “12 hours a day of pure sitting and very little chance to get up and just pace around the room.

“They say they gave me 15 minutes of fresh air but all it meant there was a window at the top that the guard would open for 15 minutes but the curtains are still drawn while the windows are open,” she said.

“Every dream was a nightmare because waking up was worse.”

The former TV news anchor for China’s state broadcaster CGTN revealed the immense toll being imprisoned had taken on her in her first interview since her release with Sky News Australia on Tuesday night.

The 48-year-old’s sentencing was delayed eight times since she was imprisoned in August 2020 and she finally returned home to be reunited with her family last Wednesday.

Cheng also revealed how she had broken an embargo – a time restriction on releasing information publicly – by a few minutes that was about information contained in a government document which led to her arrest.

“What seems innocuous to us here, and I sure it’s not limited to embargoes, but many other things are not in China especially, I’m given to understand, the gambit of state security is widening,” she said.

She told Sky News reporter Annelise Nielsen, a former colleague of hers, that even now, “because of the whole ordeal, I keep expecting people to drop out of the sky and arrest me.”

“Sometimes I feel like an invalid, a newborn, very fragile and other times I feel like I could fly,” she said.

Cheng said she was unable to reveal many details about details of her case but was just relieved to be reunited with her family.

“I have wanted to tell my story because I know this is what everyone is curious about but I’m also conscious of the fact or given to understand that I can’t really divulge details of the specifics,” she said.

“Different countries have different systems, one does what one has to do in that sort of situation and my focus was getting home to my family.”

She said “her heart broke” when her kids came running towards her when she arrived at Melbourne airport last week, three years after she was imprisoned in a Beijing detention centre.

She said the first thing she saw was, “my kids running at me and my mum who has aged a lot in the last three years.

“We just screamed and my mum wept, I could see she had lost a lot of weight because of having diabetes and having broken her ribs and having to shoulder the burden mentally and physically and be strong for me all that time.”

Cheng was detained by the Chinese Ministry of State Security after being accused of providing state secrets to foreign organisations and details around her arrest remained secret until now.

Her partner, Nick Coyle, who lives in Port Moresby, has been strongly advocating for her release and was last week reunited with her in Melbourne.

At the detention centre she said the lights were never turned off but finally back home in Melbourne and in a bed in her home she could finally turn the lights off.

She said enjoying some of her first meals since returning to Australia was helping her slowly return back to living a normal life.

“I gorged myself at the Vic Market, the temple of good eating and had breakfast, had borek (and) hot chocolate to wash it down,” Cheng said.

“I bought Moreton Bay bugs, Sydney rock oysters, what didn’t I buy, I was just going crazy at the produce market, blood oranges, swooning at the fine produce on offer.”

She also taught herself German and Japanese while she was behind bars and she built up a stash of 200 books to read while in prison.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said last week the Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court had sentenced Cheng to two years and 11 months in prison for “illegally providing state secrets abroad, with additional deportation”.

He also said she was “deported by the Beijing Municipal State Security Bureau in accordance with the law” after serving her sentence.

Cheng’s release also comes weeks before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is due to travel to Beijing to meet Xi Jinping.