Ms. Cheng’s 11-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son are being cared for by her mother in Melbourne, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.
“I feel like the children don’t fully understand the situation, so it’s probably quite tough on the kids, wondering what’s going on,” Louisa Wen, a niece of Ms. Cheng’s, told the broadcaster.
“We don’t understand anything about the case,” Ms. Wen said. “But we do know she’s been in detention for five and a half months and her conditions are worsening.”
Before Ms. Cheng’s case, another Australian of Chinese heritage, Yang Hengjun, faced spying charges in China. Mr. Yang, a writer and businessman also known as Yang Jun, has been held in China since early 2019, and last year was indicted on espionage charges.
Two Canadians — Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman — are also awaiting trial in China on spying charges. Their supporters have said that Beijing is using them as pawns to coerce Canada to refuse the extradition of a Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, to the United States, where she faces fraud charges.
Ms. Cheng’s case became bound up with those of two Australian journalists who abruptly left China in September, fearing detention. After a diplomatic standoff, the journalists — Michael Smith, the China correspondent for The Australian Financial Review; and Bill Birtles, a correspondent with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation — were questioned by Chinese state security officers, including about Ms. Cheng.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/world/asia/china-cheng-lei-australia-state-secrets.html
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