The trial took place behind closed doors. Hong Kong MPs and believers in Beijing are showing their solidarity with the journalist and his family.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews) Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong journalist who was arrested 16 months ago on spying charges, was tried yesterday behind closed doors in Beijing. China was correspondent of The Strait Times of Singapore and he was carrying out research on Zhao Ziyang when he was arrested in Guangdong last April. There is no news yet about his sentence: the swift trial was carried out without relatives or reporters present. Mary Lau Man-yee, Ching's wife, said she hoped her husband would soon be released. According to information she gleaned, her husband "is mentally fine" but has lost weight.
In Hong Kong yesterday, at least 100 people participated in a vigil in Chater Garden near Parliament. Organised by the Association of Journalists, the vigil was also attended by pro-Chinese parliamentarians like Tsang Yok-sing and Allen Lee, Hong Kong MP in the People's National Congress.
Months ago, citing anonymous sources, the Xinhua agency said Ching Cheong had gathered "top secret" or "confidential" documents about political, economic and military matters, which he then handed to the government of Taiwan. According to Chinese media, Ching signed a "confession" in which he confessed to "all his crimes" including that of building a "network of informants" to "sell state secrets" to foreign powers. In China, most information about the life of the nation is considered as "state secret" and revealing it to the media is labelled as "an attempt on state security". Currently at least 42 journalists in the country are detained for this reason. Dissident activists have told AsiaNews the real reason behind Ching Cheong's arrest is tied to his research on Zhao Ziyang and the Tiananmen massacre in 1989. The government continues to justify the massacre as a "minor" evil which guaranteed national stability and order, leading to economic success.