China-Australia relations: journalist Cheng Lei’s release helped by improved Beijing ties says minister Penny Wong

Name: Detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei returns home after 3-year detention in China
Uploaded: 2023-10-12T06:22:24.000Z
Duration: 2 min 52 s
Description: Detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei returns home after 3-year detention in China

Cheng Lei, an Australian-Chinese journalist, returned to Australia on Wednesday after spending almost three years in detention in China on espionage charges

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said improved relations since her centre-left Labor Party government was elected last year paid dividends in Cheng’s return

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Chinese Australian journalist Cheng Lei, right, poses with Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong on Wednesday. Cheng, who was convicted on espionage charges and detained in China for three years has returned to Australia. Photo: AP

Associated Press

Published: 2:22pm, 12 Oct 2023Updated: 3:33pm, 12 Oct 2023

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Thursday credited improved relations with China for the return home this week of an Australian journalist whose three-year detention in China in a murky espionage case had strained ties.

A teary-eyed Wong had greeted Cheng Lei with a hug at the airport Wednesday in Melbourne, where Cheng’s two children, 11 and 14, have been raised by their grandmother while Cheng was detained.

“She was in extraordinarily good spirits. I think I was more emotional than she was,” Wong said of Cheng. “I think she’s pretty tough. She looked great.”

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Detained Australian journalist Cheng Lei returns home after 3-year detention in China

Wong revealed that she had promised Cheng’s children some time ago that the government would do all it could to bring their mother home.

“It was really moving to meet Cheng Lei yesterday and speak to her kids who are not much older than mine,” Wong said.

She said she encouraged Cheng to thrive and be healthy and happy now that she’s free. “That’s what all Australians want you to be,” Wong added.

The FreeChengLei account on the X social media platform described her reunion with her family. “Tight hugs, teary screams, holding my kids in the spring sunshine. Trees shimmy from the breeze. I can see the entirety of the sky now! Thank you Aussies,” the post made on her behalf by her partner Nick Coyle said.

The Australian newspaper reported the government learned in the past two weeks of a deal in which Cheng would plead guilty to charges relating to state secrets with no additional time in custody. Wong declined to comment on the report, citing Cheng’s privacy.