As she marks three years of imprisonment in China, the Australian journalist Cheng Lei has written a “love letter” to Australia, saying she longs for the sunlight, the outdoors and her family.
Cheng says she misses “the black humour of Melbourne weather, the tropical theatrics of Queensland and the never-ending blue skies of Western Australia”.
“Most of all I miss my children,” Cheng said in a statement read out to Australian consular officials in a visit last month.
Her children, now aged 12 and 14, live with their grandmother in Victoria and have not been granted regular contact with Cheng.
This Sunday will mark the third anniversary of the detention of the former business anchor for the state-owned China Global Television Network (CGTN) over national security-related accusations.
Cheng was subjected to a closed trial lasting less than a day in March 2022, but the verdict has been delayed several times and the Australian government has said the case lacks transparency.
“G’day Aussies,” Cheng said. “Excuse the daggy slang from someone in need of ‘ockerism’.
“This is a love letter to 25 million people and 7 million square kilometres of land, land abundant in nature, beauty and space. It is not the same in here – I haven’t seen a tree in three years.”
In detention, Cheng explained, she secretly mouthed the names of places she had visited in the past, reliving bushwalks, swims at the beach and “psychedelic sunsets”.
“Every year the bedding is taken into the sun for two hours to air. When it came back last time, I wrapped myself in the doona and pretended I was being hugged by my family under the sun,” she said.
“I can’t believe I used to avoid the sun when I was living back in Australia.”
Cheng said she missed “the sweet encounters of wildlife in Australia, the sea salt whirling in my ear, the sand between my toes”. She missed “honesty boxes on the side of the road in the country where you could pick up fresh fruit and leave coins”.
“Growing up as Chinese Australian, I had two identities that would often fight for the upper hand depending on the context and company,” she said. “But in humour, the Aussie humour wins hands down every time.
“Even though we speak different languages and eat different meals, we laugh the same and have an eye for the absurd. We take fun seriously and make fun of seriousness.”
Cheng added: “It is the Chinese in me that has probably gone beyond the legal limit of sentimentality. Most of all I miss my children.”
Cheng’s partner, Nick Coyle, said the letter was a “message to the public to help people relate to who she is and what she misses about her country”.
“I can only imagine the longer you’re in a place like that, it’s the little things as well as the big things you miss,” Coyle said.
“In the context of the bilateral relationship, I think it’s important for this issue to be dealt with expeditiously and compassionately.”
The Australian government has promised to keep pressing for Cheng to be reunited with her family.
In May the Chinese ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, told Guardian Australia national security-related matters took “more time” to reach verdicts, but he reiterated his own personal sympathy for Cheng.
“I will continue to try to do my utmost to facilitate more access, that she could have some kind of access granted to her partner and friends and families to let them know that she’s OK,” Xiao said.
