<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/17/like-being-buried-alive-australian-journalist-cheng-lei-on-life-in-a-chinese-prison>
"Australian journalist Cheng Lei spent almost three years in China’s prison
system for breaking an embargo by a few minutes, she has revealed in her first
interview after returning home to Melbourne last week.
Cheng, 48, was working as a business reporter for China’s state-run
English-language TV station CGTN when she was arrested on 13 August 2020.
Cheng told
Sky News on Tuesday night about how the lights were always on in
her cell and for the first six months she lived in total isolation.
Her charges were never made public, and although she said she was not allowed
to divulge details, she had shared a government briefing before she went on
air, breaking an embargo by a few minutes.
“In China, that is a big sin,” Cheng said. “You have hurt the motherland. And
the state authority has been eroded because of you.
“What seems innocuous to us here, and it’s not limited to embargos but many
other things, are not in China.”
She said when she was arrested, a senior colleague called her saying she was
needed in the office for a “very important meeting”. When she arrived in the
room, there were 20 people there – one of them stood up, presented his badge
and took her back to her apartment.
“They looked for evidence all day,” she said.
As they were leaving she was told to turn off the power and water before asking
her ‘Are you sure you don’t want something to eat?’
“So I made myself a homemade bread, toasted sandwich, with cheese and avocado,”
she said.
“And those three things I ended up not having for over three years.”
Cheng went into a system known as “residential surveillance at a designated
location”, a network of prisons for people viewed as security threats. Inside
the system, victims are often subjected to interrogations and sleep
deprivation.
“It’s to make you feel isolated and bored and pained and desperate,” she said.
In the final month of isolation, she was not allowed to read or write, and so
spent every day sitting in her small dark room.
“They say that they gave me 15 minutes of fresh air, but all they meant was,
there’s a window up the top that a guard would open for 15 minutes,” she said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
