Cheng Lei: A Memoir of Freedom chronicles the extraordinary true story of Australian journalist Cheng Lei, whose life was abruptly transformed when she was detained in China on false charges of espionage. Photo: Supplied.
This astonishing true narrative of Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei recounts her three years and two months of detention in China on charges of leaking state secrets.
Cheng Lei: A Memoir of Freedom is an authoritative tale of her unlawful arrest and the inhuman treatment of her and fellow detainees in the unjust “justice” system operated by the Chinese Communist Party.
In August 2020, Lei was the precise and polished anchor of China’s government-run, English-language Global Business TV show, familiar to millions of viewers. A veteran business journalist, the mother of two young children was at the pinnacle of her career when eight words texted to a friend led to devastating consequences.
When she went into work on 13 August, she had no inkling of how her world was about to be turned upside down. She was called in “… immediately to see Mr Fan”, the director of China Global Television Network, the international division of the state-owned Chinese Central Television that she worked for.
She was oblivious of what was on the horizon, and felt no trepidation, but was excited because the “head honcho was eager to talk” about a proposal for a new television series. Her world was about to be rocked beyond recognition.
Lei was ushered into a room where she’d been expecting a one-on-one meeting. Instead, it was an unremarkable man who said in a very officious tone: “Cheng Lei, I am informing you on behalf of the Beijing State Security Bureau that you are being investigated for supplying state secrets to foreign organisations.”
“As I stood there like a stunned mullet, two people appeared beside me and seized my phone and bag,” Lei writes in the prologue. “As at other times in my life when faced with a far-out situation, I remained calm, removed … Perhaps my work had trained me to not show shock when shit happens — we experience more dramas producing a half-hour show than many people do in a month. Perhaps I thought it would be explained away soon. The charges sounded ominous but I knew I had done no such thing…”
Stepping into a lift with security officials, she tried to appear brave and unaffected. After searching her apartment, they blindfolded her and drove her to a secret location. Detained, isolated and interrogated, she was cut off from all contact with her family and friends. She simply disappeared from television screens, her flat, her life.
Lei was eventually coerced into agreeing to a five-year prison term in a country she loved but no longer recognised. On the outside, her story triggered a desperate fight for her release, a diplomatic row and global news. On the inside, her own struggle for freedom and her sanity in the face of the inconceivable had just begun.
It would be 10 months before Lei saw her lawyer, 18 months before a 90-minute show trial, more than two years before she would briefly hear the voices of her children, and more than 1150 days before she saw the entirety of the sky again — after her release was secured and she made it home to Australia.
Finally, in October 2023, she was on a flight to Melbourne, with Australian Ambassador Graham Fletcher sitting beside her, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong waiting before she “wrapped me in a welcoming hug”.
She describes herself as being culturally and linguistically schizophrenic. By the time of her arrest, she had been working in China and Singapore as an expat for close to 20 years.
Cheng Lei: A Memoir of Freedom delves into the challenges of survival, the ability to recover from hardship, the persistence to overcome challenges, and the mental and emotional fortitude to keep going. Endurance also plays a major role to last through difficult circumstances, as does the solace found in family, friends and books.
Often with sardonic wit, Lei’s personal narrative is a brutal account of her experiences in a Chinese prison, the strength of fortitude, grit, tenacity, perseverance, bravery and her struggle for freedom.
“With extreme pragmatism and strong imagination, one can find freedom within.”
As to why she was targeted, she admits her partner Nick Coyle has a “convincing theory: China wanted to get back at the Morrison government for unilaterally pushing for an independent international investigation of the Covid outbreak, which would focus on China, of course…”
Lei’s memoir is about liberty and the significance of resisting authoritarianism.
Cheng Lei: A Memoir of Freedom, by Cheng Lei, HarperCollins, $35.99
