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dpa
Sydney
A Chinese-born Australian news anchor has been formally arrested after six months of detention, China’s foreign ministry confirmed on Monday.
Cheng Lei, a news anchor for the English-language Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, was initially detained on August 13, 2020 on suspicion of endangering national security.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne had earlier confirmed Cheng’s formal arrest on February 5 on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the case would be handled “in accordance with the law.” After their investigations, authorities had reached the conclusion that the Australian citizen had illegally disclosed state secrets abroad, the spokesman added.
Canberra has regularly raised concerns about Cheng’s case, including over her conditions of detention and welfare, Payne said, and embassy officials have visited her six times, most recently in January.
Cheng’s case is one of a series of incidents involving foreign journalists in China over the last year.
Two Australian correspondents were rushed out of China in September after they were told they were “involved” in Cheng’s case and were only allowed to leave the country after agreeing to interrogations by Chinese state security officials.
Earlier in the year, all the US journalists working for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal in China were expelled, as part of retaliatory measures taken against Washington’s curbing of the number of Chinese journalists in the United States.
Sydney
A Chinese-born Australian news anchor has been formally arrested after six months of detention, China’s foreign ministry confirmed on Monday.
Cheng Lei, a news anchor for the English-language Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, was initially detained on August 13, 2020 on suspicion of endangering national security.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne had earlier confirmed Cheng’s formal arrest on February 5 on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Monday that the case would be handled “in accordance with the law.” After their investigations, authorities had reached the conclusion that the Australian citizen had illegally disclosed state secrets abroad, the spokesman added.
Canberra has regularly raised concerns about Cheng’s case, including over her conditions of detention and welfare, Payne said, and embassy officials have visited her six times, most recently in January.
Cheng’s case is one of a series of incidents involving foreign journalists in China over the last year.
Two Australian correspondents were rushed out of China in September after they were told they were “involved” in Cheng’s case and were only allowed to leave the country after agreeing to interrogations by Chinese state security officials.
Earlier in the year, all the US journalists working for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal in China were expelled, as part of retaliatory measures taken against Washington’s curbing of the number of Chinese journalists in the United States.
