Chinese Court Tries British Reporter On Spying Charges
Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent Beijing, China (AHN) - Beijing's No. 2 Intermediate Court has put on trial Tuesday a British national working as a correspondent for the Singapore Strait Times on suspicion of selling military secrets to Taiwan and setting up a spy network. Chinese authorities said Ching Cheong, has been detained since April 2005 after admitting to the charges. But the Hong Kong Journalists Association said the case against Ching is part of a series of baseless espionage cases against people with overseas ties. The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said the case against Ching is an effort of the communist China to intimidate foreign media. The group also cited the case of Zhao Yan, an employee of The New York Times in Beijing who was tried in June on allegations of leaking state secrets. No verdict has been announced in that case. A number of business executives, academics, journalists and political activists with foreign ties have been detained in China in recent years on suspicion of spying. Ching was arrested when he visited the southern city of Guangzhou to meet with an unnamed intermediary who claims to have a copy of tapes of interviews with the late leader Zhao Ziyang who was killed after the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square. His wife Mary Lau suspects it was the intermediary who set his husband up. She said her husband may have been targeted by the Chinese auth |
