China Tries Singapore Reporter on Spying Charge

By REUTERS |The New York Times
August 14, 2006

BEIJING (Reuters) - A reporter for a Singapore newspaper went on trial in China on Tuesday accused of espionage, a rights group said, one of several cases that have highlighted Beijing's harsh controls of the flow of information.

Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based China correspondent for the Straits Times, was detained in China in April 2005 and charged with spying for Taiwan, the self-ruled island that rejects Beijing's claims of sovereignty.

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement Ching's trial began at a Beijing court on Tuesday.

Hong Kong's RTHK radio station said the trial was held at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court. But court officials, reached by telephone, said they had no knowledge of the trial.

China usually conducts trials involving espionage and state security in secret.

Ching's wife and lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

Ching was detained in southern Guangzhou where he had travelled to collect documents related to former Chinese Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang.

China is the world's leading jailer of journalists, with at least 32 in custody and another 50 Internet campaigners also in prison, rights group Reporters Without Borders says.

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