By Aaron Miller-
Australia has expressed “deep concerns” over extended delays in the case of a Chinese-Australian journalist who has been detained in China for more than two and half years on national security charges.
Cheng Lei, (pictured) a former television anchor with Chinese state-run TV channel CGTN, has still not been given a verdict or sentence despite facing a closed-door trial in Beijing on March 31, 2022.
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Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said her government remains deeply concerned that Australian journalist Cheng Lei has not learned of a verdict a year after standing trial in China on national security charges.
Cheng, who has been in detention since her arrest in 2020, is long overdue a verdict by the repressive Chinese government’s judicial system which has perpetually disregarded the rule of law.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong marked the first anniversary of the closed trial in Beijing with a statement saying her government had “advocated at every opportunity for Ms. Cheng to be reunited with her family.”
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“She is still waiting to learn the outcome of the trial,” Wong said. “We share the deep concerns of Ms. Cheng’s family and friends about the ongoing delays in her case.”
“Our thoughts today are with Ms. Cheng and her loved ones, particularly her two children,” she added. The children live with family in the Australian city of Melbourne.
Asked about Cheng’s case, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning offered no new information Friday.
“China has a clear and consistent position on the case. China’s judicial departments examined the case in accordance with law and fully protected the lawful rights and interests of the person involved,” Mao said at a daily briefing in Beijing.
The anniversary comes as troubled relations between China and Australia show signs of improvement since Wong’s center-left Labor Party came to power in elections last year.
In January, Wong also marked the anniversary of China’s detention of Chinese-Australian writer and blogger Yang Hengjun, who has been held since arriving in 2019 in southern China’s Guangzhou from New York with his wife and 14-year-old stepdaughter.
Her statement then said Australia’s government was “deeply troubled” by China’s delays in resolving espionage allegations. Yang, 57, faced a closed trial on an espionage charge in Beijing in May 2021 and is still waiting for a verdict.
It is a sad reality which continues to reflect the dictatorship led Chinese regime which has no respect for the rule of law, yet wishes to be respected as a global power. Its abuse of Human Rights Laws are repugnant, and reduces the Chinese administration to a barbaric country still in archaic times, and refusing to reform even in modern day where international laws govern all democratic countries.
China is a disgrace to the world, and has made little or no progress in observing Human Right Laws.
Australian diplomats were prevented from attending the proceedings against Cheng, a mother of two, on national security grounds, in violation of an agreement between Canberra and Beijing that is supposed to allow consular access to Australian citizens.
“Today marks one year since Australian citizen, Ms Cheng Lei, faced a closed trial in Beijing on national security charges. 12 months on, she is still waiting to learn the outcome of the trial,” Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a statement on Friday.
“We share the deep concerns of Ms Cheng’s family and friends about the ongoing delays in her case. Our thoughts today are with Ms Cheng and her loved ones, particularly her two children.”
Wong added that the Australian government has consistently advocated for Cheng to be reunited with her family, who are in Melbourne, and “afforded basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment in accordance with international norms”.
Cheng was detained by authorities in August 2020 before being formally arrested on suspicion of “illegally supplying state secrets overseas” six months later.
Press freedom groups have condemned Cheng’s detention and called for her immediate release.
Wong in January expressed similar concerns about delays in the prosecution of Chinese-Australian writer and blogger Yang Hengjun, who has been detained in China on national security charges since 2019.
Improper Treatment
Beijing has typically rejected accusations of improper treatment of Australian citizens and called on Canberra to respect its “judicial sovereignty”. The cases are among a number of disputes that strained relations between Australia and China in recent years.
Tensions between the sides have eased somewhat since the election of the centre-left Labour Party in May ended nearly a decade of conservative rule.
China last month began accepting shipments of Australian coal again after more than two years of trade restrictions, offloading 72,000 tonnes of the fuel at a port in the southern city of Zhanjiang.
Human Rights Abuses
Human rights abuses in China are pervasive, and include coercive population control methods, forced labour, arbitrary detention in internment camps, torture, physical and sexual abuse, mass surveillance. There is also systemic repression of cultural and religious expression in China.
A typical example of the restrictive practices of the Chinese government before the winter olympic games of 2022 which the country hosted, was its warning to athletes against “any behaviour or speeches” that violated “Chinese laws and regulations
In March 2022, human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng was released after completing a four-year prison sentence for “subverting state power” apparently for criticizing the president. Yu Wensheng said he was pepper-sprayed, forced to sit on a metal chair until he partially lost consciousness and denied adequate food during his pretrial detention.1
In January, citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, who was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment in 2020 for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after reporting on the Covid-19 outbreak, ended her hunger strike to stop the authorities from further force-feeding.
In April, there were reports of serious deterioration in the health of Huang Qi, the imprisoned founder and director of the Sichuan-based human rights website “64 Tianwang”.
Huang Qi, who was serving a 12-year prison sentence for his human rights reporting, allegedly did not have access to adequate medical care and was denied access to a bank account where friends and family had deposited money for him to purchase medical and other supplies. He had been refused all contact with his family since 2020.
Cheng, 47, was born in China and was a journalist for CGTN, the English-language channel of China Central Television. She was detained in August 2019 and accused by China of sharing state secrets.
In January, Wong also marked the anniversary of China’s detention of Chinese-Australian writer and blogger Yang Hengjun, who has been held since arriving in 2019 in southern China’s Guangzhou from New York with his wife and 14-year-old stepdaughter.
Yang, 57, faced a closed trial on an espionage charge in Beijing in May 2021 and is still waiting for a verdict
Last year, Foreign Secretary, announced first UK sanctions against Chinese Government officials
sanctions target 4 senior officials and the Public Security Bureau of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps new measures complement action by the European Union, Canada and the United States.
On Thursday, The United States announced new sanctions on several Chinese companies for their alleged role in the persecution of ethnic minority Muslims in China’s far-western Xinjiang region.
The firms are implicated in human rights violations and abuses carried out in China’s campaign of “repression, mass arbitrary detention and high-technology surveillance against the Uyghur people and members of other Muslim minority groups.
More sanctions need to be imposed on the Chinese Government for its continuous violation of Human Rights.
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