Australian journalist Cheng Lei says China bashing ‘worrying’

Cheng Lei, who was imprisoned in China for three years, says Australians should not overreact over every bilateral issue with Beijing

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Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei attends a signing ceremony by Premier Li Qiang and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:59pm, 5 Jul 2024Updated: 10:20pm, 5 Jul 2024

Freed Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who was imprisoned in Beijing for three years, has urged Australians to avoid taking simplistic or extreme views about China.

The former anchor at Chinese state-run TV network CGTN said there were two sides of China and that both it and Australia must engage and understand each other, she said in an interview with the Australia-China Relations Institute in Sydney this week.

The Chinese-born journalist said she would consider going back to China but only if she felt safe enough and welcomed.

If China were to become a “dirty word” in Australia, Chinese Australians living in Australia who still have family and business interests in China would suffer, Cheng said. Cheng returned to Australia last October after she was locked up by Beijing for breaking a government-imposed embargo.

“When I was blocked from view at the Canberra Press event, people [were] saying, ‘We should stop trade with China because Cheng Lei was blocked’,” she said, referring to the highly publicised media coverage of Chinese officials’ apparent attempt to block Cheng’s view of Chinese Premier Li Qiang during his visit to Canberra last month.