Australia’s public broadcaster said on Thursday it will again base a correspondent in China, five years after two journalists fled the country under diplomatic protection as bilateral ties soured.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) Bill Birtles and Australian Financial Review correspondent Michael Smith were rushed out of the country in September 2020 after Chinese police conducted midnight raids on their homes and sought to question them.
The broadcaster said it had been “eager to return a correspondent to China” and hailed the resumption of its Beijing bureau as a “significant milestone”.
Birtles and Smith left China weeks after Australian citizen Cheng Lei, who worked for Chinese state TV, was detained on “national security” grounds amid rapidly deteriorating relations between Canberra and Beijing.
Cheng’s release in October 2023 marked the beginning of a gradual improvement in ties.
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