Sixteen months after he was arrested for allegedly spying for Taiwan, Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong has finally been put on trial. The development is a relief to his family and friends, not so much because he is likely to be found innocent and released but because they will finally know for how long he will have to stay behind bars. Such is the reality of the mainland's highhanded way of dealing with politically sensitive cases that one can only hope that he will get a light sentence.

Indeed, judging from the way the authorities have handled the case since his arrest in April last year, it is a foregone conclusion that the chief China reporter for the Singapore paper, The Straits Times, will be convicted and sentenced to jail. As with previous spying cases, Beijing has released little information on Ching's alleged crimes. And what it has released - that he had been spying for Taiwan's National Security Bureau by collecting secret political, economic and military information in return for payments of millions of Hong Kong dollars - defies belief.

The charges against Ching are not convincing for two reasons. The mainland has a very narrow view of what constitutes state secrets, from the days when the underground communist party was engaged in a deadly struggle for power. Much of the data that Beijing considers classified information is not regarded as sensitive in jurisdictions where access to information is a sign of good government. Ching's credentials as a patriot dates back to his student days. His close friends will need to see concrete evidence of his alleged crimes to accept that he had done anything to hurt the interests of a motherland he loves so much.