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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Cait Kelly

‘Like being buried alive’: Australian journalist Cheng Lei on life in a Chinese prison

Cheng Lei Prison Australia Nick Coyle China
Cheng Lei said Chinese prison makes ‘you feel isolated, and bored and pained and desperate’.
Cheng Lei said Chinese prison makes ‘you feel isolated, and bored and pained and desperate’. Photograph: Sarah Hodges/Australia's Department of Foreig/AFP/Getty Images

Australian journalist Cheng Lei spent almost three years in China’s prison system for breaking an embargo by a few minutes, she has revealed in her first interview after returning home to Melbourne last week.

Cheng, 48, was working as a business reporter for China’s state-run English-language TV station CGTN when she was arrested on 13 August 2020.

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