• 
• 

Ching, a correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times, was expected to return to Hong Kong shortly and his family had been informed, said the report on the government-run radio station RTHK, which cited government sources.

 The 57-year-old was jailed for five years in August 2006 for alleged spying for Taiwan. An appeal in November 2006 was rejected by the Beijing Higher People's Court despite international protests over Ching's arrest.

 Ching was arrested in April 2005 when he went to southern China to collect transcripts of interviews with the late Communist Party leader Zhao Ziyang.

 Zhao opposed China's crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests. He was stripped of his party position and was put under house arrest from 1989 until his death early in 2005.

 Prosecutors charged that Ching set up intelligence channels both in Hong Kong and mainland China, gathering a large amount of information on military, political and economic matters.

 However, critics said his trial was unfair and politically motivated and that there was no evidence that Ching was in any way involved in spying.

 Ching's imprisonment brought international protests, but Chinese officials insisted throughout that Ching confessed early on to spying and receiving money for espionage.

 Ching was born in China but has permanent residency in Singapore. He joined The Straits Times in 1996 and was appointed its chief China correspondent in 2004.//dpa