China Urged to Give Details of Hong Kong Reporter’s ‘Spying’

Key China-appointed advisers from this British colony joined journalists and human rights advocates Wednesday in urging the Chinese government to release details of the spying conviction of a Hong Kong journalist sentenced to 12 years in prison.

In a telephone interview, Tsang Yok-sing, a pro-China adviser and chairman of Hong Kong’s main pro-Beijing party, said he asked China to provide evidence to prove that Xi Yang, a Chinese citizen who reports for Hong Kong’s mainstream Chinese-language daily Ming Pao, did anything other than to simply gather news.

“We have to find out more about the facts of the case first, because many people, especially the people working for the media in Hong Kong, have argued that Mr. Xi Yang was not engaged in activities other than normal news gathering,” Tsang said. “Now, if that’s the case, then it is very serious because it certainly poses a threat to other Hong Kong journalists working both in Hong Kong and China in the future.”

China’s recent press crackdown has added to the already deep fears held by Hong Kong journalists about their freedom and job security after the British colony reverts to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 under a Sino-British agreement.

Xi, 38, was detained in September and charged with espionage for allegedly working with an employee of the People’s Bank of China to obtain advance information about interest rate changes and international gold transactions.

The Beijing Intermediate Court said Monday that Xi had been found guilty of “stealing and spying on state secrets” and imposed a 12-year sentence. Tian Ye, an official at the People’s Bank of China, was sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Top executives of Ming Pao said that a Chinese lawyer who had agreed to act for Xi when he appealed his 12-year sentence pulled out of the case.

“This case has a chilling effect on Hong Kong journalists . . . and because of what happened to Xi Yang, journalists, in particular those who cover China news, are now self-censoring themselves,” said Daisy Li, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists Assn.

Meanwhile, police in China confirmed that they have detained a woman who worked for dissident Wei Jingsheng, news agencies reported from Beijing.

Tong Yi, who maintained close relations with the foreign press in Beijing, had been missing since Tuesday. Wei is back in custody for what authorities call “new crimes.”