: ‘It’s So Good to Be Home.’ Journalists Working for Australian Media Leave China After Sheltering in Diplomatic Compounds #WorldNEWS (CANBERRA, Australia) — The last two journalists working

‘It’s So Good to Be Home.’ Journalists Working for Australian Media Leave China After Sheltering in Diplomatic Compounds #WorldNEWS
(CANBERRA, Australia) — The last two journalists working for Australian media in China have left the country after police demanded interviews with them and temporarily blocked their departures.
The absence of Australian media from China comes during a low point in the two countries’ relations, and the events that led to the journalists’ departures were seen as “disturbing” evidence of an increasing risk to foreign journalists working in China.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. ’s Bill Birtles and The Australian Financial Review’s Michael Smith landed in Sydney on Tuesday after flying from Shanghai on Monday night, both news outlets reported.
Both journalists had sheltered in Australian diplomatic compounds in recent days.

They left after Australia revealed last week that Australian citizen Cheng Lei, a business news anchor for CGTN, China’s English-language state media channel, had been detained.
Both journalists were told they were “persons of interest” in an investigation into Cheng, The Australian Financial Review reported. Seven uniformed police visited each journalists home in Beijing and Shanghai at 12:30 a. m. Thursday, the newspaper said.
Birtles said he knew Cheng, “but not especially well,”and Smith had met her once in his life.
I believe the episode was more one of harassment of the remaining Australian journalists rather than a genuine effort to try and get anything useful for that case, Birtles told ABC from his Sydney pandemic quarantine hotel room.
Australian Embassy officials in Beijing told Birtles last week that he should leave China, ABC reported.
Birtles was due to depart Beijing on Thursday and was holding a farewell party on Wednesday when police came to his apartment and told him he was banned from leaving the country, ABC said. He was told he would be contacted on Thursday to organize a time to be questioned about a “national security case,” his employer said.
Birtles went to the Australian Embassy, where he spent four days while Australian and Chinese officials negotiated. Smith had similarly holed up at the Australian Consulate in Shanghai.
Birtles and Smith both agreed to give police a brief interview in return for being allowed to leave the country.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne confirmed that her government had provided consular support to the two journalists to assist their return to Australia.
“Our embassy in Beijing and consulate-general in Shanghai engaged with Chinese government authorities to ensure their well-being and return to Australia,” she said.
Australia’s travel warning of the risk of arbitrary detention in China “remains appropriate and unchanged,” she added.