“Chinese authorities have announced that Ms Cheng is being arrested for illegally providing state secrets abroad,” Payne said, adding that “the Australian government has expressed serious concern about detaining Ms Cheng at senior levels, including about her well-being and circumstances of detention. ”
Cheng was a business anchor at CGTN, the international arm of China’s state broadcaster CCTV, which has since erased all references to her on its website and social media.
In her spare time, Cheng has been active in the Australian community in Beijing, participating in events at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and acting as an ‘alumni ambassador’ for the country’s embassy.
Her latest post on WeChat, the Chinese social networking app, showed her during the opening of a Shake Shack store in Beijing on August 12, the first restaurant opened by the American chain in China. Posing in a bright green dress, he writes the photos with the hashtag ‘make shakes not war.’
Asked about Cheng’s detention last year, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said: “China is a country under the rule of law, and we will act according to the law.”
Cheng’s original arrest comes amid rapidly deteriorating ties between Canberra and Beijing. After Australia asked for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, China focused on trade, beating tariffed products and blocking acquisitions by Australian companies.
Bill Birtles, Beijing correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and Mike Smith, Shanghai correspondent for the Australian Financial Review (AFR), were told they were ‘persons of interest in an investigation’ into Cheng. Both sought the protection of consular officials and were eventually able to fly out of China after a 5-day diplomatic strike.
“I do not think she would have done anything deliberately to harm national security,” Louisa Wen, Cheng’s niece and family spokeswoman, told ABC. “We do not know if she was just caught up in something she did not realize herself.”