Almost 20 months after she was detained in Beijing, an Australian journalist who worked for China’s global television network stood trial behind closed doors on Thursday, accused of sending state secrets abroad.

在北京被拘留近20个月后，一名为中国环球电视新闻网络工作的澳大利亚记者于周四接受了闭门审讯。她被控涉嫌向境外非法提供国家机密。

The Chinese authorities have not released the details of their allegations against the journalist, Cheng Lei, nor have her lawyers or family disclosed any specifics. Australia’s ambassador to China, Graham Fletcher, was not allowed to attend Ms. Cheng’s trial at the No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing.

中国当局没有公布对这位名为成蕾的记者的指控细节，她的律师或家人也没有透露具体情况。澳大利亚驻华大使傅关汉(Graham Fletcher)未被允许进入北京第二中级人民法院旁听对成蕾的审判。

“We can have no confidence in the validity of a process which is conducted in secret,” Mr. Fletcher said after being denied entry.

“我们对一个秘密进行的程序的正当性没有信心，”傅关汉在被拒绝进入法庭后说。

Court officials cited Chinese restrictions on access to proceedings involving national security, but Mr. Fletcher said Australia’s consular agreement with China should allow diplomats to attend any trial of an Australian national.

法院官员给出的理由是该案涉及国家安全，但傅关汉表示，澳大利亚与中国的领事协议应允许外交官出席对澳大利亚公民的任何审判。

“We have no information about the charges or allegations against Ms. Cheng,” he said. “That is part of the reason why we’re so concerned, because we have no basis on which to understand why she’s been detained.”

“我们没有关于对成蕾的控罪或指控的信息，”他说。“这就是我们如此担心的原因之一，因为没有依据可以了解她是出于什么原因被拘留。”

There was no immediate indication of how long Ms. Cheng’s trial would last. Many such trials are over in a day, with a decision issued later.

没有立即迹象表明对成蕾的审判将持续多久。许多类似审判在一天之内就结束了，之后再作出判决。

Chinese judges almost invariably find defendants guilty, especially in politically sensitive cases like national security ones. But Ms. Cheng and her family, including a young son and daughter in Australia, may have to wait weeks, months or longer before a judgment is handed down. Another Australian national, Yang Hengjun, stood trial in Beijing on espionage charges in May 2021, but the court has yet to announce a ruling in his case.

中国法官几乎无一例外地认定被告有罪，尤其是在诸如国家安全等政治敏感案件中。但成蕾和她的家人——包括在澳大利亚的一对年幼的儿女——可能需要等待数周、数月或更长时间才能得到判决。另一名澳大利亚公民杨恒均于2021年5月因间谍罪在北京受审，但法院尚未宣布对其案件的裁决。

“Her two children and elderly parents miss her immensely and sincerely hope to reunite with her as soon as possible,” Ms. Cheng’s family in Australia said in a written statement. “We will not be making any further comment at this time.”

“她的两个孩子和年迈的父母非常想念她，并真诚地希望尽快与她团聚，”成蕾在澳大利亚的家人在一份书面声明中说。“我们目前不会发表任何进一步的评论。”

The mystery surrounding Ms. Cheng’s case has kindled speculation that she was targeted because of souring relations between China and Australia.

围绕成蕾案件的谜团引发了人们猜测，认为她成为目标是因为中澳关系恶化。

Despite their economic interdependence, the two countries have been at loggerheads over regional security, Australia’s ban on the use of Chinese technology for 5G telephone networks, and Australian legislation aimed at curbing China’s efforts to influence the country’s domestic politics.

尽管两国在经济上相互依存，但在多个方面一直存在争执，包括地区安全、澳大利亚禁止5G电话网络使用中国技术，以及澳大利亚为了遏制中国影响其国内政治进行立法。

China has frozen high-level government contacts with Australia and put informal sanctions on some of the country’s goods, including wine and barley. Australia’s center-right prime minister, Scott Morrison, who faces an election within months, has accused opposition politicians of selling out to Beijing, drawing rebukes from former and current Australian intelligence officials.

中国已经停止与澳大利亚政府的高层接触，并对包括葡萄酒和大麦在内的商品实施了非正式制裁。几个月后将面临选举的澳大利亚中右翼总理斯科特·莫里森指责反对派政客向北京出卖澳大利亚，招致澳大利亚前任和现任情报官员的指责。

In June 2020, officers from the Australian Security Intelligence Organization searched the homes of four Chinese journalists based in Australia. Two Australian journalists who were working in China left there in haste a few months later after state security officers questioned them, including about Ms. Cheng.

2020年6月，澳大利亚安全情报组织的官员搜查了四名在澳大利亚的中国记者的家。几个月后，中国的国安官员对两名在中国工作的澳大利亚记者进行了包括关于成蕾问题的问话后，两名记者匆忙离开了中国。

Ms. Cheng’s friends have doubted that she was detained because of these broader issues, though the tensions may now weaken Australia’s leverage over her fate.

成蕾的朋友们怀疑她被拘留是因为这些范围更广的问题，但目前的紧张局势可能会削弱澳大利亚对其案件结局的影响力。

As a business news host for CGTN, or China Global Television News, China’s main international broadcaster, she promoted herself as a bridge between the two countries and was uninterested in gossiping about politics, said Rowan Callick, an Australian journalist formerly based in Beijing.

曾驻北京的澳大利亚记者罗文凯(Rowan Callick)说，作为中国环球电视新闻网的商业新闻主持人，她将自己宣传为两国之间的桥梁，对政治八卦不感兴趣。

Ms. Cheng was detained in mid-August 2020, and three and a half months later the police in Beijing also brought in her friend Haze Fan, a Chinese employee of Bloomberg News. Ms. Haze remains in secretive detention.

成蕾于2020年8月中旬被拘留，三个半月后，北京警方还带走了她的朋友、彭博新闻社的中国员工范若伊。后者仍被秘密拘留。

“Cheng Lei’s arrest was just a complete shock,” Mr. Callick said. “She was a go-to host for Australian social and business events” in Beijing, he added. “She was never one to be interested in that sort of political chitchat.”

“成蕾的被捕令人震惊不已，”罗文凯说。“在北京举办的澳大利亚社交和商业活动中，她是主持人的首选，”他还说。“她从来都不是对那种政治八卦感兴趣的人。”

Ms. Cheng, now in her mid-40s, was born in Hunan Province in southern China and migrated to Australia with her parents when she was 10. After working in Australia as an accountant and business analyst, she returned to China and shifted to journalism, becoming a prominent face of the Chinese government’s expanding international media presence.

现年40多岁的成蕾出生于中国南方省份湖南，10岁时随父母移居澳大利亚。在澳大利亚曾任会计师和商业分析师，后来回到中国，转行从事新闻工作，成为中国政府不断扩大的国际媒体影响力的一个突出代表。

Her Twitter profile called her a “passionate orator of the China story.”

她的Twitter个人资料上写道，她是一名“热情的中国故事讲述者”。

But Ms. Cheng appeared to take a dimmer view of the Chinese government in 2020, after the Covid pandemic began in the city of Wuhan, prompting a lockdown there and tough restrictions across the rest of the country. In posts on Facebook, Ms. Cheng suggested that official incompetence and secrecy had led to the medical disaster.

但在2020年，新冠疫情在武汉暴发导致封城、中国其他地区实施了严格的限制措施后，成蕾对中国政府的看法似乎变得不太乐观。在Facebook上的帖子中，成蕾表示，官方的无能和隐瞒导致了这场医疗灾难。

“The size of China means it’s a giant colander through which personal tragedies fall,” she wrote in one post, “but still, reality sometimes feels like a slow-motion horror movie unreeling death by death.”

她在一篇帖子中写道：“中国的规模意味着它是一个巨大的过滤器，个人悲剧会从中落下。但现实有时感觉就像一部慢动作的恐怖电影，将死亡一幕幕地展开。”