Ching Cheong

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.
For the ethnic slur, see Ching Chong.
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ching.

Ching Cheong (Chinese: 程翔) (born in 1949) is a senior journalist with The Straits Times. He is presently detained by the People's Republic of China for espionage.

Contents

[edit] Life

Ching was born in China on December 3, 1949. He was educated in St. Paul's College, Hong Kong, and graduated from Hong Kong University in 1973 with a degree in Economics.

In 1974, he joined the pro-China newspaper Wen Wei Po (文滙報), of which he eventually became vice-editorial manager. After the Tiananmen massacre of June 4, 1989, Ching and around 40 other journalists resigned from the newspaper in protest. After that he, Li Zhisong and others founded Commentary, a magazine commenting on China.

In 1996 he joined the staff of the Singapore-based Straits Times. At first he was assigned to the Taiwan desk, where his articles clearly showed a pro-unification stance. These articles are collected in a book called 'Will Taiwan Break Away: The Rise of Taiwanese Nationalism' . Ching was later named [Chief] China correspondent for the journal.

[edit] Arrest under spy charges

In the spring of 2005, he entered mainland China on a Home Visit Permit, whilst researching former Communist Party leader, Zhao Ziyang. On April 22, 2005 he was charged with spying on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency and was arrested in Guangzhou.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry later reported that he had confessed to these accusations. Formal charges were drawn up on August 5th. He was charged with passing state secrets to the Republic of China (Taiwan) over a period of five years. In particular, he was accused of using money provided by Taiwan to purchase political and military information. He is the first Hong Kong journalist to be charged with spying since the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong to the PRC in 1997. Ching's wife, Mary Lau, says the charges are ludicrous. She also added that Ching had apparently fallen victim of entrapment by an intermediary as he was trying to obtain recordings of secret interviews with the former Prime Minister[1].

In June 2005, the Hong Kong Journalists Association and Reporters Without Borders organized a petition calling for Ching's immediate release from unfair detention. The petition, containing more than 13,000 signatures, was sent to Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China. The International Federation of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists have also protested Ching Cheong's detention.

On January 12, 2006, 35 legislative councillors including 10 pro-Beijing councillors (including 3 from the Liberal Party, 3 from the DAB, 1 from the Alliance Party) signed an open letter asking the Chinese authorities to release Ching unless there was sufficient evidence.

On February 22, 2006, the prosecutor in charge of Ching's case decided to send his file back to the State Security Department for further investigation. The trial was thus delayed for at least one month.

Ching was tried in camera, found guilty of spying, and was sentenced on August 31, 2006 to five years' imprisonment. [2] The family's statement on the same date claimed the Verdict to be extremely biased, adopting only evidence of the Procuratorate while ignoring almost all defence arguments and Ching' self-defence.

On September 1, 2006 Ching's wife reported that her husband had called the verdict "very unfair" and vowed to appeal the sentence. [3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong accused of spying", Press release, Reporters Sans Frontiers. Retrieved on 2006-08-31.
  2. ^ "China jails HK reporter 5 years for spying", Reuters, Financial Times, August 31, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-08-31.
  3. ^ "Jailed China journalist to appeal", BBC News, BBC News, September 1, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-09-01.

[edit] Published works

  • Will Taiwan Break Away: The Rise of Taiwanese Nationalism (Singapore University Press, 2001) ISBN 981-02-4486-X
  • with Ching Hung-Yee: Handbook on China's WTO Accession and Its Impacts (Imperial College Press, 2003) ISBN 981-238-061-2

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../c/h/i/Ching_Cheong_20c5.html"
In other languages