Australia Raises Concerns Over Detention Of Journalist In China!

Cheng Lei was, at least to tens and hundreds of viewers, around the world the face of the China-news segment having become the face of China’s English news broadcasted around the world. Delivering compact, ‘tightly-scripted,’ news focused exclusively on China, Cheng Lei had become a prominent figure of mainstream news journalism on the television. Then, after years of notable work, all of a sudden, unbeknownst to anyone, the China-born Australian journalist suddenly went off air last year. The moment she went off air, which was about August of 2020, to be precise, none shuddered with disbelief for often taking note of an alarming sensation takes a bit of time.

It was only after a few days of having gone off air that it became clear that there was something fishy about the sudden disappearance of the Australian journalist, regarding whom there’s still widespread concern all across Down Under.

It’s been one full year and the threatening development that China detained the promising face of Chinese news to the world is about as worrisome as the concerns stemming from losing out on one’s immediate or close family member.

365 days of detention and no news about her exact condition and whereabouts, there’s much concern and rightly so that Australia faces regarding the life of a very promising and talented individual.

The Australian business journalist, a popular figure of CGTN (China Global Television Network), enjoyed prominent fanfare all thanks to her polished and well-informed sense of journalism.

But where exactly is she today? When can China release the wrongly captive woman? As a matter of fact, is China even planning to set the Australian journalist free? These are just some of the questions that pose a huge threat to a country known for its proclivity toward sports and commerce.

The fact that even as of date, her friends and family have no idea about Cheng Lei having lost all contact with her for a year seems to point toward a dangerous trend of which China is repetitively guilty; that of human rights violations and extreme treatment of humans caring little for one’s sense of dignity and sense of safety.

Moreover, that the world around Australia has been maintaining a haunting sense of silence surrounding the journalist’s captivity by China is bizarre and very telling. What is one to believe: are such illegal detentions tolerable as per the remainder of the world?

That being said, Australia, completely frustrated by the treatment having been meted to one of its own has taken to mainstream media doing little to hide its sense of frustration about a country that makes more news for bad reasons than it does for good deeds or humanitarian acts.

Here’s what The Hindu had to say with regards to the Australian journalists about whom nothing is known, as on date:

The Australian government said on Friday that it remained seriously concerned about the welfare of a Chinese-born Australian journalist a year after she was first detained in China.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne used the first anniversary of Cheng Lei’s detention on August 13 to tell China that Australia expected “basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment to be met, in accordance with international norms.” “The Australian government remains seriously concerned about Ms. Cheng’s detention and welfare and has regularly raised these issues at senior levels,” Ms. Payne said in a statement.

“We are particularly concerned that one year into her detention, there remains a lack of transparency about the reasons for Ms. Cheng’s detention,” she added.

No procedural fairness, let alone humane treatment can be expected where it concerns China, Australia fears. The only thing that’s known from China’s perspective is that the country made the arrest on the grounds that Lei’s work, as per the Xi Jinping dictatorial land, sort of “threatened China’s national security!”

That’s about it, nothing else has been stated by the Communist regime.