For a while, everything about Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia seemed to be going smoothly. Indeed, ahead of Li touching down, even opposition leader and former China hawk Peter Dutton said he would “very much welcome the visit”.
So, when Chinese embassy staff tried to block Australian journalist Cheng Lei from view during a Parliament House signing ceremony, the incident, while reflecting poorly on Beijing, was also a godsend for conflict-starved journalists.
Taken into custody in August 2020 on suspicion of carrying out criminal activities “endangering China’s national security”, Cheng
Crikey is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while we review, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.