I've seen the real face of China and it's sadistic and cruel beneath the 'Botox' façade
Ms Cheng was imprisoned for more than three years in China, with the first six months in solitary confinement where she was forced to sit still for 13 hours per day and write 'self–bashing essays'.
After almost two years free and now based in Melbourne, she has warned the Albanese government against drinking the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 'Kool-Aid'.
'There is China's public face, and it's a great face, and it's getting better all the time, with a lot of Botox,' the mother-of-two said.
'But the surface is not how it is at the core and it spends trillions of dollars – its entire stability maintenance budget – to keep up that façade.
'We are just conveniently forgetting China is a state that prioritises the CCP's rule above all else, and individuals don't matter in that system.
'I'm lucky enough to have seen both sides and I just want to remind people at all times what it can, and does do, when it thinks nobody's looking.'
Ms Cheng, who is a Chinese-born Australian journalist, described how 'cruelty is the policy' of China, inside and outside its prisons.
'The people who look at the fancy buildings and infrastructure, and think, "Oh, wow, how wonderful is this!" I want them to pause and think, "Do I want to be in that system?"
'Do I want my kids to grow up with that sort of cruelty and the back-breaking work and not having enough rights and not being able to criticise?
'People get sucked into the Kool-Aid and the fancy façade and they don't ask why Chinese people want to get out of the country, if it's such a great country to live in.'
Her comments follow Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's six-day diplomatic tour of China in which he was photographed at popular tourist spots.
He also received glowing reviews from Chinese media, which praised the blossoming relations between the two countries.
'I just don't see anything specific coming out of all this lovey-doveyness,' Ms Cheng told Daily Mail Australia following the meeting.
'The Chinese love for you to feel comfortable and that you are friends as long as you play ball.
'(Officials) have this preoccupation with "(saving) face" and once you have that friendly vibe, it's impossible to play hardball.'
In an ideal world, Ms Cheng wants Canberra to be able to have both: 'Let's talk more on trade, but yes, let's write something specific about the treatment of Aussie prisoners.'
Ms Cheng was imprisoned by Chinese authorities in 2020 after being accused of 'illegally supplying state secrets overseas', allegations that were unfounded.
The case concerned her sharing a government briefing with another journalist, with officials claiming it was embargoed, despite there being no time of permitted release on the document until a year after the incident.
In her new book, 'Cheng Lei: A Memoir of Freedom', she speaks freely and with brutal honesty about the cruelty she endured at the hands of the Chinese prison system.
For the first six months, she was placed under 'Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location' (RSDL), which the UN describes as 'enforced disappearance and might amount to torture'.
Since 2012, China's Criminal Procedure Law has been amended to give police the power to take people into custody without disclosing where they will be held.
'I had to remain in the same position for 13 hours a day,' she said, adding she was permitted a few 10-minute breaks to walk between guards, only after she was visited by the Australian embassy.
'All those years, I had been told you cannot say this, you cannot mention the word 'case' at the embassy visit. You cannot mention your name.
'I had to write these self–bashing essays in which I just basically was telling lies. I had to write these untruthful things (about myself) in order to get by.'
'I just can't see another country that is as sadistic, as organised and so in tune with f***ing up your psychology that they would design something like this,' she said.
Almost two years since she was liberated and, now settled in Melbourne as a Sky News host, Ms Cheng still feels as though the CCP has not forgotten her.
'There are so many strange things, like on Amazon: there are two fake books with the same name as my book,' she said.
'And last year, when I did a stand-up with (dissident Vicky Xu), there were two spies in the audience videotaping us with their hood pulled up.'
But her concern remains for others, acknowledging that by striking a public figure, she appears 'safer' than others.
'I hear about ordinary Australians, for example, organising a vigil for the Tiananmen Square Massacre and being followed by hooded individuals in Western Australia,' she said, referencing a tip she had been given last week.
'While I'm personally not scared, it is extremely distressing in our country people who are doing ordinary things that are totally within their rights, are having to do it in fear.'
Ms Cheng asserted China has a 'serious fear of its own people', whether in mainland China or among overseas communities.
'That's why they try to control people,' she said.
'It's either coercion through the community associations and trying to woo people, and then for them to intimidate other overseas Chinese.'
One example she gave was WeChat groups in Melbourne where Ms Cheng said members are prohibited from talking about the independence of Taiwan or Hong Kong.
'If you do, (they tell you) you can get out of the group,' she said.
'They are also using fear of what might happen to the business interests or their families.'
Despite the attempted intimidation, threats from online trolls and a public attempt by Chinese officials to block her during a press conference by China's second–in–command Premier Li Qiang in June last year, Ms Cheng is revelling in her freedom.
'There's nothing so blissful as having my voice back and to make a difference,' she said.
'It's hard to explain how insanely good freedom feels.
'I've been skydiving. I just got my open water dive scuba licence with my daughter. I'm playing soccer three to four times a week, making new friends.'
Where does that leave Ms Cheng now?
'I wish people would make informed judgements about China because right now we just have a lot of ignorant prejudice,' she said.
'People say, "Oh, well, China is all bad." Or they just conflate Chinese people and the CCP and China, the country.
'I want people to - and I wish more overseas Chinese people would - think about what it is to live here and how we should all protect the freedoms you can't experience in China.'
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