Australia urges China to allow detained mom to speak to kids

By ROD McGUIRK
Asspociated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s prime minister has urged China to allow detained Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei to make her first contact with her children in more than two years. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday renewed his government’s call for Cheng to have access to her family after China’s Ambassador Xiao Qian offered the family his help. Cheng has been detained in China since August 2019. She was tried in Beijing in March on espionage charges. Australian diplomats were denied permission to attend the proceedings. No verdict has been announced. A change of government in Australia for the first time in nine years at May elections has produced signs of a thawing of frosty bilateral relations.