Chinese Premier Li Qiang\u2019s four-day visit to Australia this week was set to be focused on repairing long-strained relations between the two countries. But apparent efforts by Chinese officials to stand in front of an Australian reporter during a press briefing have shone a spotlight back on frictions between the countries. <\/p>\n
Cheng Lei, a TV anchor who was held in detention in China for more than three years before her release in 2023, told Sky News Australia the officials went to \u201cgreat lengths\u201d to block her from the cameras during a press event Monday where Li and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed cooperative agreements. <\/p>\n
Video footage appears to show two people involved in the incident, with one of them, described by the outlet as a Chinese embassy employee, trying at one point to push closer to a seated Cheng, despite being blocked by another woman, identified by Sky News as an Australian official, who intervenes to give her space. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m only guessing this is to prevent me from saying something or doing something that they think would be a bad look, but that in itself was a bad look,\u201d Cheng told Sky News, where she has been employed as a news presenter and columnist since late last year. <\/p>\n
Cheng added that such behavior was \u201ctypical\u201d as Chinese officials wouldn\u2019t want \u201cvoices of discord or the presence of someone who\u2019s a bit controversial\u201d when they are aiming to present a \u201cfriendly facade.\u201d <\/p>\n
Multiple media outlets that were also in attendance at the press conference, including the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph, reported the same details. <\/p>\n
China\u2019s security state keeps tight control on media and information within the country, where officials are not subject to the kind of robust questioning common to democratic countries. <\/p>\n
Beijing has also long been condemned by Western nations and rights groups for wrongful and arbitrary detentions. <\/p>\n
Cheng, previously a business anchor for China\u2019s state broadcaster CGTN, was detained by Chinese authorities in August 2020 on opaque espionage charges that came as diplomatic tensions were escalating between Beijing and Canberra. <\/p>\n
The mother of two spent more than three years in detention before being released by Beijing and returned home to her family in October, weeks before Albanese made the first visit of an Australian leader to China in seven years. <\/p>\n
Speaking to Sky News ahead of the news conference Monday, Cheng said it was a \u201cvery emotional day\u201d for her to be covering the major visit. <\/p>\n
\u201cSurely the fact that one minute I\u2019m sitting in incarceration and being raised as a topic at these visits then the next minute I\u2019m actually covering the visit \u2026 is testament to how wonderful freedom is and democracy is,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Cheng\u2019s detention had been a deep point of contention between the two governments, as has the jailing of writer and democracy activist Yang Hengjun, an Australian citizen who earlier this year was handed a suspended death penalty sentence for espionage following years of detention. Yang has denied the charges, which rights groups have said are politically motivated. <\/p>\n
Albanese said he raised Yang\u2019s case with Li, but declined to give an update on the health of the democracy activist, who has said he fears he could die in jail due to health issues. <\/p>\n
When asked during a press conference later about Cheng being blocked from view by officials during the document signing, Albanese said he didn\u2019t see the incident described but added it was \u201cimportant that people be allowed to participate fully and that\u2019s what should happen in this building or anywhere else in Australia.\u201d <\/p>\n
The situation Monday stands as a stark reminder of Beijing-Canberra tensions and deep concerns within Australia, a staunch US ally, about China\u2019s authoritarianism amid a trip that was otherwise meant to instill goodwill. <\/p>\n
The four-day visit of Li, China\u2019s No. 2 official, to Australia is the highest-level trip to a US-allied country of any Chinese official in seven years. It comes as the two countries have made strides in mending deep tensions over issues of trade, security and Beijing\u2019s alleged political influence in Australia and the South Pacific. <\/p>\n
Speaking alongside Li following the signing ceremony, Albanese called the visit \u201canother important step in stabilizing\u201d the relationship. <\/p>\n
The Chinese premier, speaking via a translator, pledged that China would work with Australia in \u201ca spirit of mutual respect, seeking common ground while showing differences and mutual benefit.\u201d <\/p>\n
Li announced Sunday that China would provide a new pair of giant pandas to the Adelaide Zoo in southern Australian after its current pair return to China later this year \u2013 extending a classic gesture of friendship from China often called \u201cpanda diplomacy.\u201d <\/p>\n
China would also add Australia to its visa-waiver program, Li said Monday. <\/p>\n
Details were not immediately announced but follow similar visa arrangements with other countries in recent months as China struggles to draw in more international tourists to boost its flagging economy following years of Covid-19 border restrictions. Li announced a waiver scheme for New Zealand during a visit there Friday. <\/p>\n
The two leaders agreed to greater military-to-military communication, according to Albanese. <\/p>\n
The agreement follows recent close encounters of the two powers. In May, a Chinese fighter jet fired flares into the path of an Australian helicopter over the Yellow Sea in a move Albanese condemned at the time as \u201ccompletely unacceptable.\u201d <\/p>\n
Li\u2019s Australia visit comes as China has gradually rolled back a number of crippling trade controls that it placed on key Australian imports including beef, barley, timber, coal and wine from 2020 after then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an international inquiry into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic in China. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chinese Premier Li Qiang\u2019s four-day visit to Australia this week was set to be focused…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}