She faces life imprisonment.
Cheng Lei, an Australian journalist, appeared on Thursday March 31 in Chinese justice for "disclosure of state secrets abroad", an unexpected fate for this former presenter of a Beijing propaganda organ.
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After 18 months of detention, including the first seven incommunicado, the fate of this mother of two children is combined with the evolution of relations between Beijing and Canberra, which have fallen to their lowest level in recent years.
His trial for "
criminal activities endangering national security
" took place behind closed doors before the People's Intermediate Court Number Two in Beijing, which did not communicate on the hearing.
"
The verdict has been postponed
," Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said from Canberra.
At the time scheduled for the start of the hearing, the Australian ambassador, Graham Fletcher, denounced at the door of the court a trial "
held in secret
".
“
We were denied access to the hearing.
It is deeply worrying, unsatisfactory and very regrettable
,” he said.
"
There can be no confidence in the validity of a judicial process held in secret
."
Graham Fletcher explained that the authorities had invoked "
national security
" to deny him access to the court.
“
But our consular agreements stipulate that we must be able to attend any type of trial
,” he protested.
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He said he had no information on the charges against Cheng Lei.
"
This is partly the source of our concern: nothing allows us to understand why she is in detention
," said the ambassador.
Critics swept away by Beijing: Australia "
must respect China's judicial sovereignty and not interfere in the functioning of Chinese judicial bodies,
" Chinese diplomacy spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters.
"Obey to orders"
Born in China in 1975, Cheng Lei emigrated to Australia as a child before returning to her country of birth and being hired by Chinese public television in 2012. Her outspokenness may have worked against her, in a country where the Communist Party in power does not tolerate protest.
"
The strong point of Australian education (...) is that it does not just teach you to obey orders
", she declared in a portrait broadcast by her channel where she officiated in English.
This biography and its broadcasts have, since his arrest, disappeared from the site of the CGTN channel which broadcasts Beijing's point of view abroad.
A well-known face on the air, Cheng Lei notably conducted interviews there with business leaders from all over the world.
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The detention of the journalist had marked a new stage in the deterioration of relations between China and Australia, seen by Beijing as a pawn of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.
The ties were particularly tense when Canberra called for an international investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, detected for the first time in China at the end of 2019.
The arrest of Cheng Lei had caused the hasty and incredible departure from China of two Australian journalists fearing in their turn to be arrested.
Bill Birtles, then correspondent in Beijing for the Australian television channel ABC, and Michael Smith, ex-correspondent in Shanghai for the Australian Financial Review (AFR), had taken refuge for several days in diplomatic premises before leaving China accompanied by diplomats from their country.
A few months later, a Chinese employee of the financial agency Bloomberg, Haze Fan, was in turn placed in detention, suspected of "
threat to national security
".
She was not released and her employer has no information on her fate.
