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Cheng Lei on what it means to be truly free · The Front

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  Speaker 1: You can listen to the fronts on your smart sneaker
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  Speaker 1: on the front. I'm Kristin Amiot. It's Wednesday, July tenth.
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  Speaker 1: State sponsored Chinese hackers waged a year's long campaign against
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  Speaker 1: Australian networks, but it doesn't stop there. The Australian Signals
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  Speaker 1: Directorate also said the group targeted government systems all over
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  Speaker 1: the South Pacific under the direction of China's Ministry of
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  Speaker 1: State Security. It comes just weeks after Premier Lee Chung
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  Speaker 1: claimed Australia China relations are back on track, but it's
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  Speaker 1: not clear if the cyber espionage came up in his
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  Speaker 1: conversations with Prime Minister Anthony Albanesi. Richard Miles is sending
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  Speaker 1: three D printers to Ukraine as part of a fresh
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  Speaker 1: military package. That new pledge will happen at the NATO
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  Speaker 1: Zelenski and other world leaders. On the sidelines of the
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  Speaker 1: summit in Washington, DC, A storm is brewing in the
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  Speaker 1: United States Democratic Party. The Australian's Washington correspondent Adam Crichton
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  Speaker 1: writes that senior party members are resisting attempts by President
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  Speaker 1: about his health and cognitive state. The tussle follows an
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary call for Biden to seriously consider his future by
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  Speaker 1: the Democrats longest serving senator and third in line for
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  Speaker 1: the presidency. Those stories alive right now at The Australian
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  Speaker 1: dot com dot au. She's the self described ex Cohn
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  Speaker 1: caught up in an extraordinary diplomatic tit for tat. In
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  Speaker 1: today's episode the Broadcast, journalist Chung Lii, detained by China
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  Speaker 1: for more than three years, reflects on what it means
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  Speaker 1: to be free in an essay written as part of
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  Speaker 1: The Australian's sixtieth anniversary celebrations.
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  Speaker 2: When you're locked up, you become obsessed with freedom. I
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  Speaker 2: thought about freedom for one thousand, one hundred and eighty
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  Speaker 2: four days.
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  Speaker 1: That's journalist Chung Lii. She's reading an excerpt from an
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  Speaker 1: essay She's written about freedom for The Australian.
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  Speaker 2: Because freedom is like health, Losing it is more acutely
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  Speaker 2: felt than having it.
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  Speaker 1: Changli was born in China but came to live in
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  Speaker 1: Australia at the age of ten with her family. Lee
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  Speaker 1: finished her education in Queensland and then worked for a
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  Speaker 1: time as an accountant and then a business analy but
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  Speaker 1: Lee says she always wanted to be a journalist. In
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  Speaker 1: the early two thousands, she moved to China, where she
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  Speaker 1: pursued a media career. Lee thrived on television and by
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty she was a well known face on the
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  Speaker 1: English language Chinese state owned broadcaster CGTN, as well as
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  Speaker 1: covering finance news. She even had a cooking show. But
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  Speaker 1: then in August of twenty twenty, Lee suddenly disappeared from
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  Speaker 1: television screens. Her friends and family completely lost contact with her.
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  Speaker 1: Little did they know at the time, Lee had been
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  Speaker 1: arrested on murky espionage charges and put intottention it would
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  Speaker 1: be six months before she would see the sky again.
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  Speaker 3: And they say that they gave me fifteen minutes of
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  Speaker 3: fresh air, but all it meant was there's a window
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  Speaker 3: up the top that the guard would open for fifteen minutes,
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  Speaker 3: but the curtains are still drawn while the windows are open,
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  Speaker 3: and I certainly didn't feel that it.
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  Speaker 2: Was fresh air.
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  Speaker 3: And you never saw anything except the blue curtains and
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  Speaker 3: the modeled carpet and the beij padded walls.
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  Speaker 1: So what was Chugli's crime? According to the Chinese government,
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  Speaker 1: Lee had broken a new z embargo by a few minutes.
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  Speaker 1: For this, she would be imprisoned for three years, away
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  Speaker 1: from her two children and her partner. Chuglei's arrest came
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  Speaker 1: right as Australia's relationship with China went seriously south. Scott
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  Speaker 1: Morrison was Prime Minister at the time when the COVID
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  Speaker 1: nineteen pandemic was raging, and suggested more than once that
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  Speaker 1: China had some explaining to do about the origins of
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  Speaker 1: the virus. Things have slowly improved since Labour One government
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  Speaker 1: in May of twenty twenty two, and Miss Chung was
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  Speaker 1: finally freed in October last year, following an intense diplomatic
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  Speaker 1: campaign by Foreign Minister Penny Wong and others. She stepped
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  Speaker 1: off the plane, Lee was greeted at the airport by
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  Speaker 1: the people she'd missed the most.
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  Speaker 3: It's my kids running at me and my mom, who
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  Speaker 3: has aged.
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  Speaker 4: In the last three years, and we just all screamed and.
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  Speaker 2: More mom like wept and I just held onto it.
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  Speaker 1: That diplomatic work is ongoing. The pressure is still on
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  Speaker 1: China to release detained writer Yang Han Juan, who's been
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  Speaker 1: detained on questionable espionage charges since twenty nineteen. He was
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  Speaker 1: sentenced to death for spying in February, but didn't pursue
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  Speaker 1: an appeal due to his declining health and a lack
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  Speaker 1: of faith in the Chinese justice system to give him
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  Speaker 1: a fair go.
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  Speaker 3: Back.
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  Speaker 1: In Australia, Chung Li's relationship with freedom is complex. On
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  Speaker 1: the one hand, she writes, she appreciates and values it
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  Speaker 1: more than ever, but on the other she's painfully aware
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  Speaker 1: of how it's squad.
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  Speaker 2: If we don't speak up in defense of personal freedom
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  Speaker 2: within Australia and outside it borders, one day will be
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  Speaker 2: so comfortable in our virtual cells we won't even feel it.
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  Speaker 2: We'll forget what freedom feels like. There will be no
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  Speaker 2: self as you are for now. She's taking it one
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  Speaker 2: day at a time.
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  Speaker 4: Sometimes I feel like an invalid, like.
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  Speaker 3: A newborn and very fragile and other times I feel
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  Speaker 3: like I could fly, and I want to embrace everything,
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  Speaker 3: and I enjoy everything so intensely and savor it.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up why it's not all business as usual for
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  Speaker 1: chung Lei. Subscribers to The Australian get first access to
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  Speaker 1: six decades of thought provoking commentary and detailed analysis. Check
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  Speaker 1: us out at the Australian dot com dot au and
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  Speaker 1: we'll be back after this break.
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  Speaker 2: Even before August thirteenth, twenty twenty, the day I was
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  Speaker 2: locked up, like many others who work and live in China,
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  Speaker 2: or even those who deal with China, I had already
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  Speaker 2: surrendered many freedoms. We gave up the freedom to criticize
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  Speaker 2: the government or its leaders. We gave up the freedom
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  Speaker 2: to protest, because we all held vested interests, our jobs,
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  Speaker 2: our assets, our trade.
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  Speaker 1: When Chungli returned to Australia in late twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: she returned to work as a broadcast journalist. She's a
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  Speaker 1: colleague of ours at Sky News Australia. In her essay
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  Speaker 1: for The Australian published today, she marvels at the relative
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  Speaker 1: freedom of the media on her home soil.
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  Speaker 2: We accepted that the locals had even less freedom, that
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  Speaker 2: human rights lawyers were locked up and their families intimidated
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  Speaker 2: by the secret police, That there was heavy media censorship
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  Speaker 2: about what to report, what not to report, and how
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  Speaker 2: to report. That in Chinese art and literature, the noose
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  Speaker 2: of state control got tighter every year.
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  Speaker 1: Last month, that contrast was thrown into sharp relief. Miss Chug,
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  Speaker 1: a self described ex Cohn, attended a press event at
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  Speaker 1: Parliament House in Canberra where Prime Minister Anthony Alberniesi and
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  Speaker 1: Chinese Premier Lie Chang signed memoranda of understanding about a
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  Speaker 1: handful of issues, including education and trade. There are five
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  Speaker 1: documents to be signed today.
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  Speaker 2: The document will be signed why, Mister Leo susche the.
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  Speaker 1: Premier's visit was a significant step in the thawing of
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  Speaker 1: Australia's bilateral relations with China. From where Chungli was sitting,
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  Speaker 1: it was a very different story. Officials from the Chinese
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  Speaker 1: delegation crowded around Miss Chung in full view of the
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  Speaker 1: TV cameras dotted around the room. They couldn't be moved.
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  Speaker 1: Through the polite insistence of officials from the Prime Minister's Office.
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  Speaker 2: In standing realized at last.
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  Speaker 1: Room, there's that unshakable Chinese compliance. Likewise, she points to
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  Speaker 1: the Defending Australia Summit held in Canberra in May, where
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  Speaker 1: an interpreter who'd been booked to translate comments by a
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  Speaker 1: former Chinese spy pulled the pin at the last minute.
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  Speaker 4: Got two points I want to make at the top.
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  Speaker 4: One is an ex con an X spy, two diplomats
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  Speaker 4: on a stage talking freely without fear. That's what we're defending.
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  Speaker 4: Another point, we engaged an interpreter for Eric and she
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  Speaker 4: resigned on the spot. So she was afraid that he
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  Speaker 4: would say something against China that she would have to
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  Speaker 4: pass through her lips and that would hurt her. And
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  Speaker 4: this is on Australian soil. That's how deep the fear is.
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  Speaker 4: That's what we're defending against.
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  Speaker 1: Chug Lee says, these situations are China's priorities wit large,
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  Speaker 1: domestic optics first, international criticism second, And she asks, are
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  Speaker 1: those who leave, whether through complex diplomatic negotiations or their
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  Speaker 1: own free, will, ever truly free. You can read chug
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  Speaker 1: Le's full essay on freedom right now at the Australian
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  Speaker 1: dot com dot au