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🇦🇺 Australia /Crime & Justice

Three years in a Chinese prison changed Cheng Lei. Freedom changed her too

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Outcome reported
  • Australian journalist Cheng Lei spent 1,154 days imprisoned in China after authorities accused her of supplying state secrets overseas.
  • Released in October 2023, Lei reunited with her children but says detention continues to affect her life and relationships.
  • Her account describes harsh prison conditions, grief over time lost with her children and her determination to “live urgently” after freedom.

Cheng Lei once made roses from toilet paper to bring a little beauty into the darkness of a Chinese prison. Now free, she looks for beauty elsewhere, dangling from a parachute above Victoria’s Yarra Valley, playing soccer and starring in a play about the 1,154 days she spent behind bars.

Life after freedom is not all roses.

· Cheng LeiShe describes the lasting effects of detention after her release from a Chinese prison.

Her release in October 2023 brought emotional scenes at Melbourne Airport, where she reunited with her children, Ava and Alex. They were 11 and nine when she was arrested. Lei says the years she lost with them remain her deepest source of pain. “I’m full of anguish about the time that was taken away when they needed me or wanted me to be there and I couldn’t,” she tells Australian Story.

Lei, 51, also says freedom has not erased the experience of detention. “Life after freedom is not all roses,” she says. “In some cases, it feels like the sentence continues after release.” She describes grief and heartbreak as painful but meaningful, saying, “I see feeling grief and heartbreak as something lucky as well because the alternative is the tomb, is prison, is feeling nothing.”

In some cases, it feels like the sentence continues after release.

· Cheng LeiShe explains why freedom has not ended the psychological impact of imprisonment.

Born in China, Lei moved to Melbourne with her parents at age 10. She later returned to China as a financial analyst and joined the English-language arm of state broadcaster CGTN, where she became a television host. On August 13, 2020, her boss summoned her to work. Instead of discussing her proposal for a new program, she found a room full of people and an official who told her, “We are now investigating you for supplying state secrets to overseas entities.”

I'm full of anguish about the time that was taken away when they needed me or wanted me to be there and I couldn't.

· Cheng LeiShe discusses the years she lost with her children after her arrest.

Lei recalls being required to sit silently for 14 hours while guards watched from about 30 centimetres away. She needed permission to use the toilet or walk a few metres for exercise. After her imprisonment, she has embraced the idea of living urgently, while recognizing that the impact of those years will not disappear with release.

We are now investigating you for supplying state secrets to overseas entities.

· Unidentified officialThe statement Lei says an official made when she was summoned to work in August 2020.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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