By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian journalist Cheng Lei, detained in China on national security charges, has described how standing in sunlight for just 10 hours a year feels in a “love letter” to her country.
Cheng, 48, was a business television anchor for Chinese state television when she was detained by Chinese security officials in August 2020.
The “love letter to 25 million people” was her first public statement since then. It was dictated to consular staff during a visit and released by her partner.
“In my cell, the sunlight shines through the window but I can stand in it for only 10 hours a year,” she wrote.
“I haven’t seen a tree in three years. I relive every bushwalk, river, lake, beach with swims and picnics and psychedelic sunsets. I secretly mouth the names of places I’ve visited and driven through.”
Cheng has yet to receive a verdict after facing trial more than a year ago in a closed court in Beijing, where she was accused of providing unspecified state secrets to another country.
The Australian government has repeatedly raised concerns about her detention, which came as China widened blocks on Australian exports amid a diplomatic dispute that is gradually easing.
China, which has said Canberra should respect Beijing’s judicial sovereignty, this week lifted sanctions on Australian barley, raising expectations that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could accept an invitation to visit Beijing this year.
There is public pressure on his government to secure Cheng’s release.
On Sunday, Albanese said the barley decision was positive, but he wanted “other impediments to be removed… included in that, the detention of the Australians, including Cheng Lei”.
“Lei being released and back home with her children would greatly improve the atmospherics with regard to the bilateral relationship, from an Australian and international perspective… at a time where both countries are making efforts to improve relations,” Cheng’s partner Nick Coyle told Reuters.
Coyle was chairman of the China-Australia Business Council for nine years until he left Beijing in 2022.
Cheng, who moved to Australia as a 10-year-old, recalls growing up in a multicultural nation.
Her prison bedding is aired once a year for two hours in the sun, and comes back warm. “I wrapped myself in the doona (quilt) and pretended I was being hugged by my family,” she wrote.
“Most of all I miss my children,” the letter ends. Aged 11 and 14, they are living in Australia with their grandmother.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham; editing by John Stonestreet)
