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News.com.au
3 days ago
- General
- News.com.au
Australian journalist Cheng Lei relives ‘torture' of China's secret jails in documentary
An Australian journalist has relived the 'mental torture' of her time in one of China's notorious RSDL black jail cells in a harrowing documentary detailing ordeal. It has been little more than one-and-a-half-years since Cheng Lei landed safely in Australia after spending nearly three in Chinese custody. She was a prominent business anchor for a Chinese state broadcaster when Ministry of State Security officers unexpectedly raided her Beijing apartment in August, 2020. After hunting through her belongings and seizing all her electronic devices, they blindfolded Cheng and disappeared her into China's web of secret prisons. Now a Sky News presenter based in her hometown of Melbourne, Cheng has delved into the brutality of her detention in a documentary for the network titled Cheng Lei: My Story. She shares heart-wrenching details of the darkest period of her life and offers a rare glimpse into one of the most ruthless justice systems on the planet. Cheng was held in solitary confinement for nearly six months after being accused of endangering China's national security. Chinese authorities never fully clarified the allegation, but that did not stop them holding her for 177 days before her official arrest. 'RSDL is the Chinese spelling for hell,' Cheng said in the documentary. 'It stands for Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location, which makes you think it's house arrest. 'But in reality, it's mental torture.' Little is known about RSDL in China. But Safeguard Defenders, which tracks disappearances in China, has scraped enough together to paint a deeply disturbing picture. Detainees are kept at unknown locations for up to six months in cells 'designed to prevent suicide', according to the human rights not-for-profit. Witnesses have told the group they were denied legal counsel or contact with the outside world and 'regularly subjected to torture and forced to confess' — experiences hauntingly similar to Cheng's. Faced with a recreation of her cell, Cheng became emotional and said the months she spent inside were 'as close to dying and wanting to die as I ever got'. 'Yeah, this is where I spent six months,' she said as she entered the mock cell. 'Just sitting like this, thinking I was never gonna get out and absolutely helpless.' The room was simple — blank, cream walls, a bed and a stool for the guards that watched over her 24/7. She was forbidden from talking or making the 'slightest movement', and had to receive permission before so much as scratching herself, she explained. 'So you're in a bare room, and you are guarded and watched at all times by two guards,' Cheng said. 'One stands in front of me, one sits next to me, and they take turns with the standing and sitting. 'I have to sit on the edge of the bed and have my hands on my lap. 'Not allowed to cross the ankles or cross the legs, not allowed to close the eyes, no talking, no laughing, no sunshine, no sky, no exercise, no requests, no colour — just fear, desperation, isolation and utter boredom.' She says she sat like that for 13 hours each day. 'I hated having to sit still, not being able to do anything,' Cheng said. 'How do they come up with this — just nothingness? Nothingness, but also a sea of pain. 'I had no idea what was happening, or how long I would be here.' Outside, fierce diplomatic efforts were underway to gain consular access to her, with Australian officials fighting to get information to her loved ones — including her two children in Melbourne — about where she was and what her condition was. Safeguard Defenders has estimated as many as 113,407 people have been placed into RSDL and later faced trial. After she was formally arrested, Cheng was taken out of RSDL and moved into a larger cell with three other women. She stayed there for the remainder of her detention. Cheng and her cellmates were still subjected to 24-hour surveillance, but at least she was not alone, and a clearer picture was forming of what had landed her in custody. 'Eight words' As a senior journalist working for state media, she had access to Chinese government releases before they were published, including a major announcement that Beijing was not setting a 2020 GDP target due to uncertainty from the Covid-19 pandemic. Cheng was close friends with a reporter at Bloomberg, Haze Fan. The journalists shared their sources with each other. Cheng said Fan had been pushing for a 'series of government reports from me that hadn't been published in order to break the story at Bloomberg'. 'And I wanted to help her, because she had helped me,' Cheng said. 'When I told her the eight words which were 'no growth target', 'GDP', nine million jobs target' at 7:23am, I thought that would help her break the story, which they did.' She sent the text just seven minutes before the announcement was published. 'The charge was supplying state secrets to foreign entities, which boils down to texting eight words, seven minutes before the embargo (lifted), to my friend at Bloomberg,' Cheng said. Cheng was detained during a low point in Australia's relationship with China. Former prime minister Scott Morrison had infuriated Beijing when he backed an inquiry into the origins of coronavirus. China's ambassador at the time warned Australia's push for a probe was 'dangerous'. Soon after, tariffs were slapped on Australian goods, leading to a years-long trade war that has only recently eased, with the Albanese government unlocking $20bn worth of trade. Cheng's incarceration has been broadly seen as being part of China's efforts to pressure Australia. She was only released as ties with China began to normalise in late 2023. Cheng made clear the suffering she endured as a pawn in a geopolitical game. 'You don't know if you'll ever see your family again, because you don't know what they (the Chinese government) want,' she said. 'You don't know how everything you've done that you thought was good was now possibly criminal. 'Everything that made you happy or gave you pleasure now just was so far, is so removed from you. It was a cause of pain.'
Al Arabiya
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Czech FM summons Chinese ambassador over cyberattack
China's ambassador to the Czech Republic was summoned on Wednesday over a cyberattack that targeted Prague's foreign ministry, Czech officials said. The Czech foreign ministry said an extensive investigation of the attack 'led to a high degree of certainty about the responsible actor,' naming it as China-linked group APT31. 'I summoned the Chinese ambassador to make clear that such hostile actions have serious consequences for our bilateral relations,' Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said on X. The foreign ministry of the Czech Republic, an EU and NATO member of 10.9 million people, said in a statement the attack started in 2022 and targeted 'one of the unclassified networks' of the ministry. 'The malicious activity... was perpetrated by the cyberespionage actor APT31 that is publicly associated with the (Chinese) Ministry of State Security,' the ministry added, citing its investigation. 'We call on the People's Republic of China to... refrain from such attacks and to take all appropriate measures to address this situation,' said the ministry. Lipavsky said that 'we detected the attackers during the intrusion.' The Czech Security Information Office (BIS) singled out China as a threat to security in its 2024 annual report. 'The Chinese embassy logically focuses on gaining information about the Czech political scene,' the BIS said. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas condemned the cyberattack in a statement. 'In 2021, we urged Chinese authorities to take action against malicious cyber activities undertaken from their territory,' Kallas said, adding EU members have nonetheless witnessed attacks from China since then. 'We call upon all states, including China, to refrain from such behaviour, to respect international law and to adhere to the UN norms and principles, including those related to critical infrastructure,' she added. 'Growing pattern' NATO also slammed the attack, saying it observed 'with increasing concern the growing pattern of malicious cyber activities stemming from the People's Republic of China.' Prague has recently angered Beijing by fostering close ties with Taiwan as high-profile Czech delegations, including the parliament speakers, have visited the island while Taiwanese officials came to Prague several times. China is trying to keep Taipei isolated on the world stage and prevents any sign of international legitimacy for the island. It sees such visits as an infringement of the one-China policy which Prague officially pursues, just like the rest of the EU. In May 2024, Lipavsky summoned the Russian ambassador over repeated cyberattacks targeting several European countries, including the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. They blamed the attacks on the Russian group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, which has ties to Russia's GRU military intelligence service. The BIS then said that Russia was a 'permanent security threat' for the Czech Republic, which provides substantial humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine, battling a Russian invasion since 2022. It added the Chinese threat was also growing in the context of the Ukraine war as 'the North Korea-China axis keeps cultivating relations with Russia which give it a boost in the current conflict.' Beijing flatly denies allegations that it engages in state-organized hacking of overseas targets.
South China Morning Post
26-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
China's former state employees warned not to leak classified information
China's top intelligence agency has warned all former state employees with access to sensitive information to be aware of the risks of leaking state secrets In a social media post on Monday, the Ministry of State Security said managing these workers after they retired or left their jobs was 'not a private affair but a vital component of national security'. It called for vigilance against such risks to ensure information security. 'Some individuals, after leaving their positions, disregard national security and interests, misinterpret the declassification period as a restriction of freedom or a career shackle, and even go into hiding or evade supervision,' the ministry said. It cited a case involving a person, identified only by his surname Feng, who was sentenced to six years in prison for leaking state secrets after retiring from his job at a state-owned enterprise. 05:29 China executes scientist for spying in 2016, among 10 'shocking' cases revealed in documentary China executes scientist for spying in 2016, among 10 'shocking' cases revealed in documentary The ministry said Feng had been lured by a foreign espionage agency that offered him a substantial 'consulting fee'. It said Feng had maintained close ties with his former colleagues at the company and was able to gain access to core classified information in a critical industry sector.
South China Morning Post
25-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
China's spy agency warns of foreigners posing as scholars, tourists, ‘insincere lovers'
Chinese citizens should be on alert for friendly foreign faces who could be spies – from scholars who do not do research and tourists who do not sightsee, to lovers who only want information, the country's top spy agency has warned. In a post on its official social media account on Sunday, the Ministry of State Security said foreign spies might be hiding in plain sight, using various identities to carry out activities that threaten China's national security. It highlighted five deceptive identities commonly used by foreign spies: tourists who do not sightsee, scholars who conduct no real research, businesspeople who do not do business, investigation consultants who do not investigate, and 'insincere lovers' who exploit relationships to gather information. The post warned that some agents could approach Chinese students abroad and appear to be 'like-minded foreign friends who shared the same interests', only to try to recruit them through romantic relationships. 'Don't be fooled by sweet talk, and never disclose sensitive or classified information to them,' it said. The ministry also urged members of the public to alert national security authorities about any suspicious people and activities
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Yang Hengjun: Australian writer pens letter from Chinese jail
An Australian novelist jailed in China has in a letter to his supporters and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese detailed his "unbearable suffering" as he enters his sixth year in detention. Chinese-born Yang Hengun was last year handed a suspended death sentence by a Beijing court on espionage charges, something he denies. In his letter, he thanked Albanese, saying he and the Australian government were doing their "utmost to bring me home for medical care and reunification iwth my family". Foreign minister Penny Wong said in a statement that she and Albanese were "deeply moved" by Dr Yang's letter and wanted to "see him home in Australia, reunited with his family". Dr Yang, who previously worked for China's Ministry of State Security, blogged about Chinese state affairs, but his writings often avoided direct criticisms of the was living in New York but travelled to Guangzhou in January 2019 with his wife and her child - both Chinese citizens - on a visa run when he was intercepted at the case has mostly unfolded behind closed doors since then and in 2024, he was handed the suspended death sentence, which is typically converted to life imprisonment after two the time, Albanese described the sentence as an "outrage".But China maintains that Yang's case was "rigorously handled" in accordance with the law. It also warned Australian officials not to interfere in the Yang had denied the charges but did not appeal the ruling out of concerns that it would delay medical care, his family said. There have been worries about his declining health, after a large cyst on one of his his latest letter, Dr Yang thanked the country's leaders as well as the Australian Embassy in China for their support during the "hardest and darkest chapter" of his life."All of this solicitude and solace has helped me to bear what has been untold and unbearable suffering," he said that he still loved both China and Australia - the former the "motherland in which [he] was born, brought up in, and made strong", and the latter his "beloved children's motherland"."I have a dream. That there is no war, no bullying, no incivility. People of different colours, cultures, and nationalities love each other like sisters and brothers."Wong described Yang's letter as "a message of profound courage, resilience and hope despite extraordinarily difficult circumstances".Several people in both countries have been arrested and charged with espionage and foreign interference as ties between both countries have been shaky in recent 2023, Chinese-Australian businessman Sunny Duong was found guilty of trying to influence a former minister with same year, Australian journalist Cheng Lei was released after more than three years of detention in China on accusations of "illegally supplying state secrets overseas".
