Videos of this Sky News journalist being hassled by Chinese officials has gone viral, but why was she a target?

Cheng Lei is a Chinese-born journalist currently working for Sky News Australia.

In 2020 she was detained by Chinese Authorities who suspected she was a threat to the national security of China.

Last October she was released from detention after spending three years in prison.

When she returned to Australia, she was greeted by Penny Wong at Melbourne Airport and was interviewed on ABC program 7:30.

Yesterday at a press conference, Cheng Lei was heckled by Chinese Embassy Officials who tried to block her vision of proceedings.

She later said on Sky News that Chinese Officials can be control freaks when trying to stage manage proceedings.

“I wanted to get away from the guy [Chinese official] who was standing next to me. I think the worry is that my being there is a symbol of some sort. Maybe they didn’t want that for the domestic audience. We don’t want this incident to overshadow the rest of the visit, which is the real news. It is enough of a circus without me being a sideshow,” said Ms Cheng.

Anthoney Albanese announced today that his government has made an official complaint to the Chinese Embassy for their treatment of Ms Cheng.

Albanese told ABC Radio Perth that “There should be no impediments to Australian journalists going about their job, and we’ve made that clear to the Chinese embassy.”

It seems that the Chinese Embassy’s attempts to avoid problems with Ms Cheng were in vain with the story making national headlines this week.