īirtles and Smith wrote personal accounts of their departures upon their arrival in Sydney, in which both denied any close connection to Cheng. Cheng was under investigation for national security crimes, a broad category that can include espionage, illegally obtaining state secrets or subverting Communist Party power. On Tuesday, hours after the two journalists had returned to Australia, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry confirmed for the first time that Ms. Cheng was being held under “residential surveillance,” a sweeping detention power that can keep people in custody for up to six months, denied visits by relatives or lawyers. Smith about Cheng Lei, a Chinese-born Australian business news anchor for China’s CGTN television service who was detained in August.īoth men reported extensively on the case, including the detail that Ms. The Australian Financial Review reported that Chinese investigators sought to question Mr. “Their rushed departure from China marks a new low in a relationship which had already seemed to have reached rock bottom,” said Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney think tank, and a former China correspondent. It also highlighted Beijing’s increasingly heavy-handed tactics to limit independent journalism in the country. Their exit, which occurred after negotiations between Australian and Chinese diplomats that led China to revoke a ban on their departure, added another conflict to the deteriorating relations between the two nations. From Damien Cave and Chris Buckley of The New York Times: īoth men were questioned about Australian Cheng Lei, a reporter for the official Chinese overseas broadcaster China Global Television Network (CGTN), who was recently detained. He was due to depart last Thursday morning. Subsequent advice prompted the ABC to organise flights back to Australia for Birtles. The saga began early last week, when Australian diplomats in Beijing cautioned Birtles that he should leave China, with officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade giving the same advice to ABC’s managing director David Anderson in Sydney. Matthew Doran and Stephen Dziedzic report for ABC News:īill Birtles, the ABC’s correspondent based in Beijing, and Mike Smith, the AFR’s correspondent based in Shanghai, boarded a flight to Sydney last night after the pair were questioned separately by China’s Ministry of State Security.īirtles had spent four days sheltering in Australia’s embassy in Beijing, while Smith took refuge in Australia’s Shanghai consulate as diplomats negotiated with Chinese officials to allow them to safely leave the country. Bill Birtles of Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Michael Smith of The Australian Financial Review both received simultaneous visits from security officers at their homes in Beijing and Shanghai, respectively, last week, and later went under Australian consular protection until they departed Tuesday.
Following threatening behavior from Chinese security offices, two Australian journalists have left China.
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