A Hong Kong journalist charged with spying for Taiwan has been released from a prison in mainland China after almost two years in detention, the government said Feb. 5.

Officials in China notified Hong Kong authorities on the morning of Feb. 5 that Ching Cheong had been released on parole.

Ching, a Hong Kong-based correspondent for Singapore's The Straits Times newspaper, was sentenced to five years' jail in August 2006 on charges of spying for Taiwan. He was detained during a visit to the southern city of Guangzhou in April 2005 and sentenced in a one-day trial 16 months later.