Ching Cheong, 55, the Hong Kong-based chief China correspondent for the paper, was detained on April 22 in the southern city of Guangzhou. In its first comments about the case, China said Tuesday, Ching was being investigated for espionage.

"Ching has admitted that in recent years he has been following the instructions of overseas intelligence organisations and has undertaken intelligence collecting activities on mainland China," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"He has collected a large amount of spy fees."

The statement did not say what countries or overseas groups he had allegedly spied for.

Ching's wife Mary Lau told AFP on Monday her husband was detained for and while trying to obtain a sensitive manuscript of secret interviews with former Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang, deposed for opposing the government's decision to send in troops to violently crush pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989.

The former premier and secretary general of the Communist Party's inside knowledge of what led to the decision that resulted in hundreds and perhaps thousands of people killed by troops on Tiananmen Square would be explosive material.

Observers believe Ching's arrest is part of a wider probe by Beijing into who might have access to the manuscript to stop it from being taken out of the country to be published.

The author of the manuscript, Zong Fengming, 85, who had rare access to Zhao while Zhao was under house arrest from 1989 until his death in January, told AFP Tuesday he has been under pressure by the government to not publish the document.

"They've visited my home a few times.... They told me not to expand Zhao Ziyang's influence," said Zong, who denied knowing Ching.

Zong said the chief editor and another employee at the Hong Kong Xinfeng Publishing Company, which published an earlier book last year in which he briefly quoted Zhao, have also been harassed by Chinese authorities.

"They were followed and questioned.... They are afraid to publish the second book," Zong said.

Foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan on Tuesday said China had "ample evidence" against Ching but refused to say what that evidence was.

Kong sought to emphasize Ching's arrest was not related to Zhao, but declined to explain why China was putting pressure on Zong and others not to release the manuscript.

"Ching Cheung's case is not related at all to Zhao Ziyang," Kong said.

The fact that Ching is a Hong Kong citizen, not a Singaporean citizen, could make it difficult for his family to win his release.

While it is common for China to jail or punish Chinese journalists, China has refrained from jailing foreign journalists, preferring to deport them. But it does not consider Hong Kong journalists as foreigners.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Hong Kong Journalists Association Tuesday condemned Ching's arrest and called for his immediate release.

"The latest crackdown by Chinese authorities on foreign journalists and media outlets is indicative of their systematic policy of silencing the media," Christopher Warren, president of the Brussels-based IFJ, said in a statement.

Ching's detention follows the arrest of Zhao Yan, a Chinese researcher for the New York Times' Beijing bureau last year. Zhao, accused of "divulging state secrets," is being held incommunicado without trial.

"The consequence of Cheong's and Zhao Yan's arrests has the potential to have a chilling effect on foreign news operations in China," Warren said.

The China-born Ching is also a Singapore permanent resident and holder of a British national (overseas) passport, which is not the same as citizenship in those countries.

A British embassy spokeswoman said Tuesday the embassy was seeking consular access to Ching. There was no immediate reaction from the Singapore foreign ministry.

The media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders Tuesday called on Singapore and Britain to pressure China to release Ching, saying Singapore had an obligation to protect a reporter for the Straits Times.

The Singapore government said late Tuesday Ching's arrest was "not related" to the city-state's government.

"We understand his arrest is on a matter that is not related to the Singapore government," a foreign ministry spokesman said, adding however that the Singapore embassy in Beijing had "approached the Chinese side to enquire into the welfare" of the detained journalist.

The Straits Times' publishing company expressed shock at the charges against Ching, who has been working for the daily since 1996.

"Until we see incontrovertible evidence, we stand by our belief that he has always acted in the best interests of the Straits Times," Singapore Press Holdings said in a statement.

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