“I miss my kids”, says Journalist jailed in China in a “love letter” to home.
Jailed Cheng Lei, an Australian journalist, expressed her longing for her children and the country’s “psychedelic sunsets” in a rare public letter marking three years since her mysterious arrest in China.
Cheng describes her bleak prison conditions in a candid note dictated from her cell to Australian officials, shedding new light on a long-standing point of contention between Canberra and Beijing.
“I miss the sun,” reads the message, described as a “love letter” to Australia.
“In my cell, the sunlight shines through the window but I can stand in it for only 10 hours a year.”
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The former CGTN anchor was arrested in 2020 and formally charged with “supplying state secrets overseas” – no further details have been provided.
Cheng’s partner, Nick Coyle, shared her message with Australian news outlets and on the social media platform X on Thursday evening.
Cheng was detained at a time when tensions between China and Australia were rising, and some speculated that political maneuvering may have played a role in her detention.
Her case is frequently compared to that of Yang Jun, a Chinese-born Australian writer who has been detained in China since 2019 on vague espionage charges.
Although the relationship between Canberra and Beijing has improved in recent months, with China lifting a slew of trade tariffs, Cheng’s detention remains a source of friction.
Penny Wong, Australia’s Foreign Minister, stated that the entire country wanted Cheng to be “reunited with her children.”
“Australia has consistently advocated for Ms Cheng, and asked that basic standards of justice, procedural fairness, and humane treatment be met in accordance with international norms,” she said Friday in a statement.
“We will continue to support Ms Cheng and her family and to advocate for Ms Cheng’s interests and wellbeing.”
Last year, Coyle said he had serious concerns about a “range of health issues” Cheng faced behind bars.
The mother of two expressed her longing for Australia’s bushwalks, beaches, and “psychedelic sunsets” in the heartfelt message.
She claimed that her bedding in jail was only changed once a year.
“It is probably the Chinese in me that has gone beyond the legal limits of sentimentality,” writes Cheng, who identifies as Chinese-Australian.
“Most of all, I miss my children,” she writes at the end of the letter.
Cheng has been detained since August 2020, but he was formally arrested only in February 2021.
She was tried behind closed doors last March, with even Australia’s ambassador to China barred from entering the courtroom to observe proceedings.
The court deferred the verdict and Cheng’s sentence, which could extend to life in prison.
“She has missed her daughter going to high school. Her parents aren’t getting any younger and Lei is their only child. So time is getting more and more precious,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Coyle as saying on Thursday.
Wong brought Cheng’s case up with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit last month in Jakarta.
