CRF-2005-03-text.qxd 9/8/05 3:19 PM Page 133 Prisoner Profile: of an interview with the late purged leader husband’s innocence and reiterated his Ching Cheong Zhao Ziyang, which Ching was going to have unquestioned patriotism toward China. She published. The following day, Ching noted in particular that her husband had instructed his wife, Mary Lau, to bring his brokered meetings between researchers NO. 3,NO. 2005 COMPILED BY ZENOBIA LAI personal computer to Shenzhen. The com- from the Chinese Academy of Social Sci- puter apparently contained notes that ence (CASS) and various Hong Kong politi- Ching had kept on important policy discus- cal figures, including individuals branded as sions. dissidents, to give the central government During the first week of his detention, access to the uncensored views of critics Ching reportedly maintained regular con- of the current administration. In her letter, tact with his wife and told her not to dis- Lau urged Hu to recognize the whole- close his situation. Ching’s employer, The hearted sincerity of her husband and CASS Straits Times, soon learned of his deten- Scholar Lu Jianhua in protecting the welfare tion, but was similarly requested to keep of China, and pleaded for them to be CHINA RIGHTS FORUM the matter confidential. On May 29, Ching spared imprisonment. called his wife and urged her to visit his Although Ching Cheong is a Hong Kong Ching Cheong. Photo: AFP/Getty Images parents more often, as he did not expect to permanent resident, the Hong Kong govern- 133 return to Hong Kong any time soon. During ment refused to take further action to that telephone conversation, an official assist in his release. Hong Kong’s then Ching Cheong was born on December 22, from the Ministry of State Security asked Interim Chief Executive, Donald Tsang Yum- 1949 in mainland China. He was educated Ching’s wife to visit her husband in Beijing, kuen, maintained that the Hong Kong gov- in Hong Kong, attending St. Paul’s College but Ching warned her to stay in Hong Kong. ernment could not interfere with mainland and graduating from the University of Hong Since then, Ching’s wife has had no direct legal proceedings under the “one country Kong (HKU) in 1973 with a major in geogra- communication with him. two systems” principle. Secretary for Secu- phy and economics. While at HKU, Ching News of Ching’s detention was widely rity Ambrose Lee also deferred to mainland REGULAR FEATURES was one of a number of students who reported through the Hong Kong news law and legal processes when pressed by launched groups promoting patriotism media as another example of China’s tight- legislators and confronted by protests from toward mainland China. ening grip over press freedom, raising par- the Hong Kong Journalists’ Association and Unlike most HKU graduates of his gen- ticular attention because Ching was well others. eration who opted to join the Hong Kong known for his idealistic and fervent patriot- On August 5, the Chinese authorities civil service, Ching took the unconventional ism toward China. announced that Ching had been formally road of becoming a reporter for a pro-China Soon after the news of Ching’s deten- charged with espionage. Officials said that newspaper, Wen Wei Po, the year after he tion went public, China’s Ministry of Foreign Ching had used the alias Chen Yuanchun to graduated. He worked out of the Beijing Affairs acknowledged his detention during a purchase “a great deal of information bureau from 1981 to 1987. After the vio- press conference on June 1. Foreign Min- about China’s political, economic and espe- lent official crack-down on protesters at istry spokesman Kong Quan denied that cially military affairs, including some classi- Tiananmen Square in June 1989, Ching Ching’s arrest was related to the reported fied as ‘top-secret’ or ‘confidential,’ and and a group of other journalists resigned in Zhao Ziyang interview. Instead, he declared passed it on to the Taiwan intelligence,” for protest from Wen Wei Po. Ching and a col- that Ching had admitted to spying on China which he was paid “several million Hong league subsequently launched a monthly for an overseas entity in exchange for large Kong dollars.” news magazine, Contemporary (Dangdai), sums of money. The Ministry posted the News reports quoted sources as saying which folded in 1995. In 1996 Ching transcript of the press conference on its that CASS scholar Chen Hui was suspected Cheong became chief China correspondent Web site that day, but hastily removed it the of providing copies of classified materials for the Singapore newspaper The Straits following day, and has made no further to another CASS scholar, Lu Jianhua, who Times. He was based in Hong Kong prior to comment on Ching’s detention. then shared the materials with Ching his disappearance. On June 3, 2005, Ching’s wife received Cheong. Both Chen and Lu were detained Ching Cheong is a permanent resident a letter from the Chinese government via around the same time as Ching and are of both Hong Kong and Singapore. He also the Hong Kong Security Bureau, informing reportedly still in custody. holds a British National (Overseas) pass- her that her husband had been put under On August 17 the Beijing state security port, which confers a form of British nation- residential surveillance, a form of house bureau notified Mary Lau that it had ality without right of abode in the United arrest. The letter, issued by the Ministry of rejected her application to engage a lawyer Kingdom. State Security, was dated April 23, 2005, to defend Ching. On April 22, 2005, state security police but there was no explanation of why deliv- detained Ching Cheong at a hotel in ery had been delayed for more than 40 Guangzhou. According to reports, Ching days. had come to Guangzhou to meet a source In an open letter addressed to Presi- who was supposed to deliver the transcript dent Hu Jintao, Mary Lau maintained her.