“ I marvel at every little freedom that we have. Because for three years and two months, it was all brutally taken away from me,” says Australian journalist Lei Cheng. In 2020, Lei was wrongfully detained in China after being falsely accused of leaking state secrets. Several years after her release, she took the stage at TED2025 to share her perspective on the meaning and value of freedom. Following her talk, Lei sat down for a special conversation with TED Talks Daily host Elise Hu to discuss her experience and how it’s shaped her vision for a freer future.For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas and conversations to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. Freedom is a flower. It needs to be nurtured with water and sunlight and thoughtful care. It's not a given that it will grow or survive all on its own. Journalist Lei Cheng knows this firsthand.
For more than three years, Lei was imprisoned by China on false accusations of supplying state secrets overseas. Today, she has a simple but powerful message. You have to tend to your freedom, and it can't be taken for granted. After Lei's talk, she and I sat down to think about freedom in theory and in practice.
We also talk about the role of journalism in helping preserve our freedoms in an increasingly turbulent world.
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Well, Lake, congrats on your TED Talk. We're getting you just off the TED stage. How are you feeling now that it's done?
I'm very energized by the reception. And it's very empowering to have lost my voice, my identity, lost everything for so long. I love TED. And I love our lineup of awesome speakers who all have years of experience on their subjects. My talk is about what I didn't have for a long time.
And as Claire told you, I received free accommodation from the Chinese government for over three years for so-called leaking state secrets overseas at the worst time for Australia-China relations. And the first phase was called RSDL, Chinese spelling for hell. Then in detention, the sort that makes jail seem like Ibiza,
And it was through that ordeal, call it the wonder diet, that I realized freedom is wasted on the free. Let me explain. You can be paralyzed by choice. You can't comprehend the vastness or the preciousness. So how do you make freedom count when you're lucky enough to have it? To start, what it felt like to be not free.
and then to reclaim a lot of that, and in fact, with the TED audience, to magnify not just my voice, but that of others wrongfully incarcerated in China and in other countries, and to tell people that even while China seduces with sophistication of technology and seemingly stable prosperity, that there are these dark corners in which repression and torture take place.
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