China blocked my visa. I spent three years getting as close as I could

The day I landed in Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, China tore down the Great Firewall. tThe Sydney Morning Herald and Age. Despite my colleagues’ long history of discovering Chinese government influence operations abroad and growing authoritarianism At home, newspapers had escaped China’s online censors for the past two decades.

Now how The New York Times, The Washington Post and the ABC, we were blocked. Because? We’ll never know for sure. The Olympic Games were about to begin. Maybe my interview published on the day Earlier, when Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu accused China of crimes against humanity, it was the final straw.

One thing is certain: despite its claims that it is opening up, China is increasingly isolating itself from the world. My application for a long-term visa to settle in China was denied in July 2020, months before the last remaining correspondents working for Australian media, Bill Birtles and Mike Smith, They were hastily expelled from the country. Australian-Chinese TV presenter Cheng Lei He had been arrested days before.

Australia’s relationship with China had fell to historic lows. The Australian government had blocked Chinese telecommunications company Huawei and implemented foreign interference legislation over national security fears. Australia then became the first nation to call for an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. China’s anger triggered $20 billion worth of trade strikes across half a dozen industries and his list of 14 grievances. All ministerial contact between the two countries was cut off for more than a year.