"One thousand days is a shockingly long time in detention," Nick Coyle says. He is referring to his boyfriend, Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who is still imprisoned in China. The specifics of the charges against her remain unknown, and she has yet to be sentenced. Mr Coyle, like Ms Cheng's other friends and family, says he has no idea what she is meant to have done to deserve this treatment.
"I would urge the relevant Chinese authorities to resolve this terrible situation as soon as possible," he tells the BBC. Cheng Lei was working as a business reporter for China's state-run English language television network CGTN when she was abruptly apprehended by state security personnel on 13 August 2020, and was later charged with "illegally supplying state secrets overseas." Her first six months were spent in solitary confinement, in stress positions, and without access to a lawyer, despite being interrogated. She has been kept with other inmates since then. Her trial was held behind closed doors in March of last year. Graham Fletcher, Australia's Ambassador to China, was also denied entrance. However, her punishment has been repeatedly postponed. The BBC's calls to the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court, where her trial was taking place, went unanswered.
Mr Coyle, the former CEO of the China-Australia Chamber of Commerce, has recently left Beijing but continues to lobby for her release from outside.
"In January, I took China's ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, at his word when he expressed hope 'that a solution will come as soon as possible,'" Mr Coyle adds. "We're still waiting five months later." Yang Hengjun, another Australian imprisoned on state secrets allegations, has similarly had his sentencing repeatedly postponed. What is deemed a "state secret" in China is a broad term that can effectively be anything the government wants it to be. Detention of foreigners for extended periods under an opaque, party-controlled legal system is proving difficult for a country trying to bring international business investment back to its shores following years of extraordinarily harsh Covid lockdown measures. From 2018 through 2021, Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were held as hostages in response to extradition proceedings against Huawei's top financial officer Meng Wanzhou. They were released just hours after the US abandoned its extradition request for her. Nonetheless, the pressure on foreign firms remains. A Japanese executive from a pharmaceutical company was held six weeks ago, and China's foreign ministry said he was accused of spying. International corporate research firms have also been searched in recent weeks. Many prospective foreign investors are contemplating the risks of remaining in China, but they also recognize the obvious allure of the country's vast domestic market. Australia and China have had a tumultuous few years. Australian wine, barley, and lobsters have been sanctioned by Beijing. Tensions have been high in this country, where more than 5% of the population can trace their ancestors back to China.
Among all of this turmoil, Cheng Lei's situation has received a great deal of attention. When it comes to detention in China, foreign passport holders of Chinese heritage have been treated differently from other foreigners over the years: in short, far more strictly. However, if the Chinese authorities expected Australians to be less concerned about Cheng Lei because she is ethnically Chinese, they were mistaken. Her children were nine and eleven years old when she was picked up. The fact that they haven't seen their mother in all this time has reverberated throughout Australia and beyond.
"Fair-minded Australians – from business leaders to political leaders and the general public – do not accept the status quo," says Nick Coyle.
China's foreign ministry has attempted to allay world concerns over the issue. During a regular press conference, spokeswoman Wang Wenbin stated, "China's judicial authorities have handled the case in accordance with the law, fully protecting Cheng Lei's legal rights." On the second anniversary of her arrest, he stated that the verdict would be handed down "in due course." However, more than a year after her secret trial, no "judgment" has been rendered.
In China, being charged with an offense nearly often implies losing. Officially, the conviction rate is nearly 100%. Lawyers and supporters do everything they can to reduce the sentence the guilty may suffer in these circumstances. When it comes to foreigners, their governments attempt to negotiate the release of their citizens with their Chinese counterparts. This can sometimes require transactions. The Chinese government would want to see Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visit Beijing later this year to formalize a recent warming in relations. The Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun cases could be used as negotiation chips by the Australian side to smooth the way for this visit to take place.
The Australian government claims to have raised their cases numerous times. Mr Albanese stated on television last week, while in London for the Coronation, that "our position on China has been to engage constructively but to continue to put forward that the impediments to trade should be removed, to say very directly to President Xi, that Australians such as Cheng Lei need to be given proper justice, and that they are not receiving." The fact that he named Xi Jinping by name will not have gone unnoticed in Beijing. Much of Cheng Lei's career had been spent attempting to bridge the gap between her birth nation and the place where her family had relocated.
Her case has strained relations between China and Australia, something she would not have preferred. One thing appears to stand out in the few communications she is able to send out of the prison via monthly half-hour visits by Australian diplomats: how much she misses her children and how much agony she feels being apart from them. Her children, now 11 and 14, have been doing their best to grow up in Australia without their mother, according to Nick Coyle, but "for Lei and her children's sake, I really hope a solution to all of this can be found urgently."
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