A Chinese court on Friday upheld a five-year prison term for Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong on charges of spying for archrival Taiwan.

Rejecting Ching's appeal, the Beijing [Images] Higher People's Court upheld his original five-year sentence for espionage in one of the high-profile media prosecution cases in the Communist nation.

Ching, 56, who worked for Singapore's Straits Times newspaper in Hong Kong, was also deprived of political rights for one year, and his personal property worth 300,000 yuan (about 37,500 U.S. dollars) was confiscated.

Ching was detained during a visit to the southern city of Guangzhou in April 2005.

The original verdict of the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in August was 'a correct application of the law and provided appropriate punishment,' Xinhua news agency quoted a judge of the Beijing Higher People's Court as saying.

The court fully guaranteed Ching's right of appeal, the judge said.

According to the court, Ching had become acquainted with two people from a Taiwan foundation, which was an espionage organisation.

Between May 2004 to April 2005 Ching supplied Xue and Dai, through fax and email, with information involving state secrets and intelligence he had received from his contacts in Beijing.

Ching accepted 300,000 HK dollars from the Taiwanese organisation.

A document released by the court during the first trial said the penalty was a mitigated one considering that after Ching was detained, he voluntarily confessed more espionage activities than those the state security departments had known.

He also presented his notebook computer, which contained evidence of espionage, to the authorities, the court document said.

China views Taiwan, an island of 23 million people, as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force.

Ching's case is the second one involving a journalist.

In August, a Beijing-based researcher of New York Times, Zhao Yan was absolved of charges that he leaked state secrets to foreigners, but convicted on unrelated charges of fraud and sentenced to three years in prison.