Cheng Lei, the former Australian anchor of China Global Television Network (CGTN), was tried at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court on March 31, but the court held a closed-door trial on the grounds that Cheng Lei’s case involved state secrets and strictly prohibited journalists and even Australians. Ambassador to China Graham Fletcher (Graham Fletcher) attended the hearing, prompting criticism from the Australian government over the lack of transparency in China’s judiciary. Observers said that the political motivation behind the case is strong. The Chinese government has repeatedly used “hostage diplomacy” to retaliate and coerce the Australian government by arresting Cheng Lei and other Australian citizens. Cheng Lei is a victim of the deterioration of Sino-Australian relations.
After being detained by China for nearly 20 months, Chinese-Australian journalist Cheng Lei appeared in Beijing for the first time on March 31. The 47-year-old was charged with “illegally providing state secrets overseas”. The Beijing court did not open the hearing to the public.
On the day of the trial, the entrance to the court was blocked by the police, and journalists were not allowed to enter. Even the Australian ambassador to China, Fu Guanhan, was not allowed to enter to observe. Fu Guanhan, who was turned away, told reporters: “This is deeply worrying, dissatisfying and regrettable. We have no confidence in the effectiveness of the secret trial process.”
He also said the China-Australia consular agreement allows diplomats to attend any trials of Australian citizens.
Cheng Lei’s secret trial further aroused Canberra’s concern. “The Australian government respects the sovereignty of China’s legal system,” Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a written statement. “However, the Cheng Lei case lacks transparency and the Australian government has never obtained any details related to the crime.”
Is it a violation of consular agreement to refuse Australian diplomats to attend?
Faced with doubts, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular press conference that followingnoon that the parties to the case, “Cheng Lei and her defense lawyers, appeared in court to participate in the lawsuit. The case is currently in the process of trial, and the court will announce the verdict at a selected date.” He He also said that because the case involves state secrets, no one is allowed to listen in, and the court will not hear it openly according to the law, which is “legitimate, lawful, and beyond reproach.”
Observers pointed out that Cheng Lei, an Australian citizen, violated the consular agreement between the two countries by refusing Australian diplomats to attend the court hearing on the grounds of a secret trial.
Yu Ping, an independent legal scholar who lives in New York, USA, said in an interview with VOA that whether foreign consulates can audit or not depends on the consular agreement signed by the two parties, but China is now citing China’s criminal procedure law and decides not to open the trial first. It was an excuse to refuse Australian diplomats to attend. He said that China-Australia friendship may be the real reason behind it.
Yu Ping said: “The two sides have a consular agreement, which is an international law, and the treaty must abide by (is) the basic principle of international law. Now it seems that China is saying that following the relationship is broken, it will not abide by it, and will not give you Go in (audit). Because it (the CCP) also knows that following you go to the audit, you will definitely find its troubles, find out that there are problems in its trial, and simply refuse you to participate. So I think, obviously, Australia There has been a major deterioration in relations with China.”
According to Article 111 of China’s Criminal Law, Cheng Lei is suspected of “the crime of illegally providing state secrets and intelligence for foreign countries”.
Yu Ping said that this crime is one of the most serious criminal law provisions in China, but it is “broadly defined” and there is room for ambiguity in what is meant by state secrets and what is intelligence, so it is often used as an excuse to detain foreigners to increase the chances of diplomatic negotiations. chips.
Yu Ping said: “It (the CCP) can legally use a very broad weapon, and it also has very obvious political or diplomatic purposes for the detention of foreigners. Looking at this situation, it (the CCP) will continue to use the law in the future. It is entirely possible to detain foreigners in the name of detainees, or even to sentence them, and the increase is not unexpected.”
Sino-Australian friendship catalyzes “hostage diplomacy”?
Relations between China and Australia have been deteriorating for years. As early as the South China Sea arbitration case in 2016, Australia has sung once morest Beijing and publicly opposed China’s sovereignty claims in the South China Sea. Since 2017, China-Australia relations have been on a cliff-like decline. China has repeatedly coerced Canberra with its economic and diplomatic influence, triggering a tough rebound in Australia, which has not only scrutinized and rejected Chinese-funded investment cases more than once. Australia further passed two “anti-foreign interference laws” in 2018 and banned Chinese telecommunications companies, including Huawei, from participating in the construction of 5G networks, citing national security.
After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020 and spread around the world, Australia was also one of the first countries to call for an investigation into the source of the virus, thoroughly angering Beijing.
Chen Youhua, an assistant professor of Chinese studies at the International Liberal Arts University in Akita Prefecture, Japan, believes that the bad relationship between China and Australia has given China an incentive to operate “hostage diplomacy”, arbitrarily arresting foreign students, journalists or scholars as a political bargaining chip.
Chen Youhua said: “Look at the two Michaels in Canada. After[Huawei’s chief financial officer]Meng Wanzhou was arrested, China arrested two Michaels (Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor). )). (Taiwan’s) Lee Ming-che also has a strong relationship with the DPP government taking office, so to a certain extent, China is trying to use this kind of hostage diplomacy to give their so-called hostile countries a bit of a warning.”
According to Chen Youhua’s observation, China’s trials with political motives and intra-party struggles have developed a certain pattern. That is, foreigners are charged with leaking state secrets, while natives are convicted of corruption and slander, and there is usually no fair trial in the process.
Chen Youhua told VOA: “The characteristic of China’s hostage diplomacy is that, no matter if it is a foreigner, a Chinese with foreign citizenship, or even a Hong Konger, the Xi (Jinping) government will arrest no matter who it is. You see ( Cheng Lei case) trial is over, but the result has not been announced, to a certain extent, China wants to leave the Australian government a diplomatic space.”
Feng Chongyi: The purge of Sun Lijun and Cheng Lei was affected
Although the court has not yet ruled on Cheng Lei, the China Justice Observer website infers that Cheng Lei has a high probability of being convicted, as Chinese courts have a conviction rate of over 99%.
Feng Chongyi, an associate professor of Chinese studies at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia, also agrees that when dealing with political prisoners, China always arrests people first and then finds charges.
Feng Chongyi judged that Cheng Lei’s arrest may be related to Sun Lijun, the former deputy minister of China’s Ministry of Public Security. He said Sun Lijun, who had studied in Australia, may have introduced Cheng Lei to work in China and become her backstage. After Sun Lijun was sacked for corruption and other crimes in April 2020, Cheng Lei was also arrested in August of the same year.
Feng Chongyi told VOA: “I am more inclined to believe that it may be the purge of Sun Lijun. She (Cheng Lei) went to work in China from Australia and got an important position on CCTV, which may have something to do with Sun Lijun’s introduction. The previous practice of (the CCP) was to arrest all the people around and collect charges. After (Cheng Lei) was arrested, she would always have to settle the charges, so she started from her occupational field, saying that she disclosed China’s secrets to foreign countries. For China’s intelligence services, it’s too easy to settle for this crime.”
The CCP sparks fear among foreigners
Yu Ping, an independent legal scholar living in the United States, believes that the CCP’s arrest of Cheng Lei and other Australian citizens is not only unjustifiable, but also fears that they will cut their own way, because many foreigners who used to be friendly to China are also afraid of going to China. .
Yu Ping said: “Everyone feels that they may become one of them, because these are reasons beyond the control of the individual. The relationship between the two countries is not good. You go to detain the citizens of the other country and make any excuses. , who dares to go?”
Japanese scholar Chen Youhua holds a similar view. He said that since the CCP manipulated hostage diplomacy, journalists stationed in China have begun to withdraw, which has caused China to lose a channel that can balance reporting. In addition, many scholars do not even dare to cross the border in Hong Kong, for fear of becoming a bargaining chip in hostage diplomacy, which is not good for China’s image.
Does the CCP plan to purge overseas Chinese?
Long before Cheng Lei, many Australian citizens were detained in China for no reason. For example, Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun was forcibly detained by the Beijing State Security Bureau following he entered Guangzhou in early 2019, until he was charged with “espionage crimes” in August of that year. “was formally arrested.
In this regard, Feng Chongyi of the University of Technology Sydney, Australia, said that from Yang Hengjun, Cheng Lei to Taiwan’s Li Mingzhe, the CCP’s planned “purging of overseas Chinese”.
Feng Chongyi himself was stopped at Guangzhou Airport in 2017 before boarding a plane, and was detained by the CCP for more than a week on the grounds that he was “suspected of endangering national security.”
Feng Chongyi told VOA: “I was arrested the same week as me, as well as a friend from Taiwan, Li Mingzhe. I was arrested as a representative of the intellectual world, and Li Mingzhe was arrested as a representative of an NGO. It (the CCP) is premeditated and planned to silence the voices of overseas Chinese.”
China has repeatedly manipulated “hostage diplomacy”, how should other countries respond?
Feng Chongyi called on the Australian government to be tough and demand the immediate acquittal of Cheng Lei, Yang Hengjun and others, rather than just asking China to improve the openness and transparency of the judiciary.
Feng Chongyi said: “China is illegally detaining people and arresting people illegally. Australia has the ability to call it (the CCP) to release people immediately. Calling it (judicial) transparency is out of bounds, because China has always done this to political prisoners. (The CCP) transparency is completely playing the piano to the cow.”