The warning signs are all there. It's no coincidence that China has become more belligerent as their economy has faltered, they are a dictatorship and they need to divert the attention. Expect more of the same or even dialled up a notch or two as stagnation becomes long term.

Second I wouldn't say being a journalist in China has any prestige. Certainly not any investigative journalism there. You're just told to say what you're told to say, you can pick some random person off the street for that, I mean how hard is that? Would her "experience" mean much outside of China? It's like a person having 10 years experience but never moved beyond the duties of a graduate.

Third she could have gone to Taiwan. If she's struggling to get a job in Australia (I assume due to language abilities?) Taiwan speaks her native language so she would fit right in there and not be in this predicament.

But the end of the day they target us because we can't do anything to counter it. Americans would probably lock up a Chinese citizen on trumped up terrorism charges as leverage whereas Australia doesn't.