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Australian journalist reveals how China threatened 14-year old daughter with detention

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Sep 21, 2020, 01:05 PM IST
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Matthew Carney with his daughter (Courtesy: ABC) Photograph:(Others)

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Matthew Carney said he kept quiet for two years for the incident in 2018 as he did not want any 'negative consequences' for the organisation's work in China

A former Australian correspondent in China on Monday revealed how he and his 14-year-old daughter were given detention threats by Beijing. 

Matthew Carney said he kept quiet for two years for the incident in 2018 as he did not want any "negative consequences" for Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) work in China.

Two weeks ago, two Aussie reporters working for the state-funded ABC and The Australian Financial Review newspaper became the latest journalists to leave China after facing detention threats. 

Carney was the ABC's China bureau in 2018 when Australia passed laws to counter covert foreign interference in domestic politics, which he said "outraged" Beijing. 

In an interview to ABC radio, the former correspondent in China also said he was asked to bring his daughter, Yasmine, to a Beijing Public Security facility where interrogations and detentions used to happen.

He was told by a woman official that the duo was being probed for a "visa crime". 

"Your daughter is 14 years old. She is an adult under Chinese law and as the People's Republic of China is a law-abiding country she will be charged with the visa crime," he said, quoting the official.  

Post consultation with the Australian embassy and the ABC, Carney said he confessed his guilt and apologised for the "bizarre visa violation" on condtion that his daughter would be allowed to stay with him.