When Cheng Lei didn’t show up to the birthday celebration on August 14, 2020, for her partner, Nick Coyle, he knew something was up. And when the Beijing-based Australian journalist didn’t respond to any of his texts that evening, he grew even more concerned.  The next morning, Coyle went to Cheng’s apartment, where he noticed her passport and laptop were gone. “It was at that point that I knew [she was missing],” says Coyle, who was the executive director of the China-Australia Chamber of Commerce at the time. Two years later, Cheng, who was a prominent business anchor for CGTN, the Chinese state broadcaster, is still in detention. The Chinese government arrested her on national security grounds and accused her of “illegally providing state secrets to foreign forces,” but has provided very little detailed information about the case. In March, at a closed-door trial — where the Australian ambassador was denied entry — her verdict was deferred.  None