China to charge reporter with spying

Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong, under house arrest for three months, is expected to be formally charged with spying for collecting interviews with Zhao Ziyang, the former party leader who had supported pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989, The South China Morning Post reported, quoting unnamed mainland sources. Charges could be filed as early as Friday, and sources told the Post there was hope he would be convicted and then expelled. Ching is the Hong Kong-based China correspondent for Singapore's The Straits Times. China's foreign ministry said Ching had confessed to spying for an overseas intelligence agency in going to Guangzhou and seeking to collect interviews with Zhao.