China formally charged a prominent Hong Kong journalist with spying for Taiwan on Friday, ratcheting up a politically sensitive investigation that has also resulted in the arrest of a mainland scholar with ties to China’s president, Hu Jintao.
The government decided to charge Ching Cheong, chief China correspondent for the Straits Times newspaper of Singapore, despite appeals for his release from Hong Kong political figures and international media organizations. But Ching’s family held out hope that the authorities might expel him after a quick trial rather than sentence him to prison.