Aussie journalist back with family after China release

Australian journalist Cheng Lei has been deported from China after more than three years in detention on espionage charges widely seen as politically motivated.

Cheng, 48, a former English-language anchor for state broadcaster CGTN, had been held since August 2020.

She was only formally arrested months after disappearing and was eventually charged with "supplying state secrets overseas."

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said "her return brings an end to a very difficult few years."

She has reunited with her two children in Melbourne, he added.

The FreeChengLei account on X posted a photo of Cheng with Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and Australia's ambassador to China, Graham Fletcher.

The post included a quote, apparently from Cheng, that read: "Tight hugs, teary screams, holding my kids in the spring sunshine. Trees shimmy from the breeze. I can see the entirety of the sky now! Thank you Aussies."

Cheng was tried behind closed doors. Australia's government had long campaigned for her release, calling for China to follow "basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment."

Albanese said Cheng had been released after the "completion of legal processes in China."

In a statement, the ministry of state security said Cheng had been deported "after serving her sentence" of two years and 11 months in prison on charges of "illegally providing state secrets overseas."

There had been growing fears for Cheng's wellbeing in recent months, with partner Nick Coyle saying she was suffering from a "range of health issues."

Cheng had written about her bleak prison conditions in China in a candid note dictated to Australian officials from jail and released last August.

"I miss the sun," read the message.

Born in Hunan province, Cheng emigrated to Australia as a child and returned to China, joining the state broadcaster in 2012.

Australia-China relations had been in deep freeze after Canberra barred Chinese tech firm Huawei from lucrative contracts in Australia.

China was also furious at Canberra's calls for an investigation into the origins of Covid.