Part TWO: Locked up in China — Cheng Lei on cell mates, singing and survival

Jun 5, 2025

Cheng Lei, a Chinese-Australian journalist detained in China for over three years, shares her harrowing experience of isolation and survival. After being moved to a cell with three women, she finds camaraderie and even romance through singing and secret communication. Lei reflects on the absurdity of her charges, her clever coping strategies, and the emotional toll of separation from her children. Finally, she recounts her journey to freedom and the joy of reintegrating back into her life in Melbourne, armed with resilience and newfound strength.

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ANECDOTE

Exercise for Sanity in Detention

Lei Cheng kept exercising in detention to maintain mental and physical health.
She warned inactivity causes mental decline and saw it happen to her cellmates.

INSIGHT

Discipline Prevents Mental Decline

Maintaining strict discipline over mind and body in confinement is exhausting.
Mental stimulation is essential to prevent brain atrophy in isolation.

ANECDOTE

Family Call After Years Apart

Lei Cheng had a 30-minute call with her family after years in detention.
Singing a childhood song with daughter and hearing their voices lifted her spirits.

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Cheng Lei's years in detention in China, on trumped-up espionage charges, go from cruel and isolating, to absurd and romantic when she gets moved into a cell with three other women.

The Chinese-Australian journalist was held in detention in China for more than three years, accused of selling state secrets to foreign people and powers.

In episode one of this two-part series, Lei explained how the charges hinged on a document that was read out publicly on television, and how she survived the cruelty of interrogations and being kept in isolation.

In this episode, Lei's details how her experience of detention changed as she moved out of solitary confinement, but still under lock and key with three other women.

In cell 112, Lei and the other women sang songs when the guards weren't watching, they fought, they bonded and they communicated secretly with the prisoners in a cell next door.

The knocking, for which Lei was punished, climaxed in a covert proposal.

Eventually, Lei saw sunlight again.

With the help of the Australian Government, she was released and flown back home to Melbourne, where she was reunited with her children (now teenagers), rebuilt her life and can be publicly critical of the paranoid and image-conscious state security system that locked her behind bars for years.

Further information

Listen to the first part of Richard's extraordinary conversation with Cheng Lei here.

Cheng Lei: A Memoir of Freedom is published by HarperCollins.

Cheng Lei: My Story is a documentary made by Sky News Australia. It is available to stream at SkyNews.com.au.

Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. This episode was produced by Meggie Morris.

Find out more about the Conversations Live National Tour on the ABC website.

This episode of Conversations explores CCP, Covid, propaganda, communism, paranoia, Marise Payne, Scott Morrison, family separation, career changes, jail, justice system, Chinese Communist Party, embassy, diplomatic relations, CCTV, state broadcaster, media, television, news anchor, single mothers, trade, tariffs, books, writing, motherhood, parenting, Tiananmen Square, personal stories, origin.