Ching Cheong
| Ching Cheong | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
22 December 1949 Chaozhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China |
| Alma mater |
St. Paul's College, Hong Kong University of Hong Kong |
| Criminal penalty | 5 years in prison |
| Criminal status | released |
| Ching Cheong | |||||||||||||
One of the "Free Ching Cheong" posters
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| Chinese | 程翔 | ||||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Chéng Xiáng |
| Wade–Giles | Ch'eng Hsiang |
| Yale Romanization | Chéng Syáng |
| IPA | [ʈʂʰə̌ŋ ɕjǎŋ] |
Ching Cheong (Chinese: 程翔; pinyin: Chéng Xiáng; born in 1949) is a senior journalist with The Straits Times. He is best known for having been detained by the People's Republic of China on allegations of spying for Taiwan. He was imprisoned from April 2005 to February 2008, spending more than 1000 days in prison.
Ching was born in Guangzhou, China on 3 December 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-Red China newspaper Wen Wei Po (文滙報), of which he eventually became vice-editorial manager. After the Tiananmen massacre of 4 June 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.
In the spring of 2005, he entered mainland China on a Home Visit Permit, while researching former Communist Party leader, Zhao Ziyang. On 22 April 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 5 August. 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.
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Wikipedia