China said yesterday that it has charged a reporter for a Singapore newspaper with spying for Taiwan, four months after detaining him.
A report by the official Xinhua news agency said Ching Cheong (程翔), a China correspondent for Singapore's the Straits Times, had confessed to the charges, including using hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy classified political and military secrets.
Ching, a China-born Hong Kong resident, has not been heard from since he was detained April 22 while visiting China. His family has denied he did anything wrong.
Ching, 55, was allegedly recruited by Taiwan's National Security Bureau in 2000 and "set up a number of channels for espionage in both Hong Kong and the island," Xinhua said.
Using the name Chen Yuanchun, Ching bought "a great deal of information about China's political, economic and especially military affairs, including some classified as `top-secret' or `confidential,' and passed it to the Taiwan intelligence," the Xinhua report said.
His actions were "detrimental" to national security, the report said.
It was the first time the Beijing government has given any details of the accusations against Ching.
It was not immediately clear if Ching would face trial. Under Chinese law, the penalty for spying can range from decades in prison to death.
In Taipei, Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (
Wu said Ching's arrest might be part of a "kill a chicken to scare the monkeys" policy to intimidate other Hong Kong journalists, who are known for their aggressive pursuit of stories.
He feared the move might cause Hong Kong media to engage in self-censorship to avoid offending Chinese officials.
Ching's wife, Mary Lau (
On Thursday, she insisted her husband was innocent.
"We firmly believe that he didn't do things that harm the country," she said on Hong Kong's Commercial Radio.
Lau has said police apprehended Ching as he tried to obtain a manuscript of a book on late former Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang (
The Straits Times posted Ching in Taiwan in 1998, and transferred him to Hong Kong in 2000.
Xinhua said Ching was given "several million Hong Kong dollars" -- the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of US dollars -- to use for spying.
It said Ching had "confessed the whole process of his spying activities for the Taiwan intelligence" during interrogation by Chinese security agents.
Irene Ngoo, a spokeswoman for the Straits Times' publisher Singapore Press Holdings, said the Chinese Embassy had informed the company of Ching's charges.
"We have made another request to have access to Ching Cheong and to seek legal representation for him," Ngoo said in a statement. "The Chinese Embassy said it would convey our request to the Beijing authorities."
According to the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, China was the world's leading jailer of reporters for the sixth consecutive year last year.
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