China upholds guilty verdict on journalist Ching-report

HONG KONG, Nov 24 (Reuters) A Chinese court today upheld a guilty verdict against a Hong Kong-based Singapore newspaper reporter who was sentenced to prison for five years for spying, Hong Kong cable television reported.

Straits Times journalist Ching Cheong was detained in April 2005 in southern China where, his wife said, he went to collect documents relating to disgraced former Chinese Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang.

In August this year a Beijing court convicted him of spying for Taiwan, the self-ruled island over which Beijing claims sovereignty, and sentenced him to five years in prison and confiscated property worth 300,000 yuan (,700).

Reuters SBA VP0725