Free Republic

BEIJING (AP) - A Hong-Kong based reporter has been charged with spying for Taiwan, the mainland Chinese government said Friday, accusing him of obtaining huge amounts of classified information under an alias. Ching Cheong, a China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times, was recruited by Taiwan's National Security Bureau in 2000 and "followed the instructions of the Taiwan intelligence and set up a number of channels for espionage in both Hong Kong and the island," the official Xinhua News Agency said. Using the name Chen Yuanchun, he also bought "a great deal of information about China's political, economic and especially military...

HONG KONG - Ching Cheong, the Hong Kong-based correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times who has been detained by Chinese anti-spy authorities since late April, is possibly only one among hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Hong Kong who could be picked up at any time by Chinese authorities. According to the Hong Kong Journalists' Association, this week Chinese security officials told Ching's wife that he was being held under house arrest in Beijing. On May 31, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) had made a brief statement over Ching's arrest. "Ching Cheong is a permanent resident of Hong Kong....

Amid all the admiration and fear of China's emergence as a modern industrial power, it is easy to forget how old fashioned are the country's politics. China may have embraced capitalism, globalisation and free trade, but its 1.3bn inhabitants are still ruled by a secretive Communist dictatorship. There are two related reasons for remembering this today. First, June 4 is the anniversary of the day in 1989 when party leaders launched a violent assault on the pro-democracy movement centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds of young protesters. Second, the party has recently begun a new campaign against freedom of...

A JOURNALIST considered to be the doyen of China correspondents has been detained in Beijing and could be charged with stealing state secrets after he tried to obtain a copy of interviews with a Communist leader purged after the Tiananmen Square massacre. Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong national who works for The Straits Times, a Singaporean newspaper, would be the first reporter for a foreign publication to be charged in China. Mary Lau, his wife, said: “He told me that he expected to be shut up for a long time. It seems they suspect him of stealing state secrets.” Mr...