FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE: ST correspondent Ching Cheong meeting the Hong Kong media at the Foreign Correspondents Club yesterday. -- ST PHOTOS: CHUA CHIN HON

Doing so would make China more 'harmonious', the journalist said, referring to a key political goal set by Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Mr Ching was given a five-year jail sentence in 2006 after being charged with spying for Taiwan, and was not expected to be released until 2010. But in a surprise move, Beijing granted him parole on Feb 5 and allowed him to return to Hong Kong.

'This year marks the 30th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, and the country's first Olympics. I hope the Chinese government will announce an amnesty to help create greater social harmony,' Mr Ching told about 100 reporters packed into the Foreign Correspondents Club here yesterday afternoon.

Aside from Mr Ching, Beijing has in recent weeks released at least two mainland journalists who were jailed for writing critical articles or helming aggressive news coverage that embarrassed the government.

There are signs that the Chinese government could grant more pardons in the months ahead, following a prominent article in the Southern Weekend newspaper last December suggesting that 2008 be made a 'Year of Amnesty' in China.

China pardoned 'counter-revolutionaries', war criminals, and ordinary convicts on seven occasions between 1959 and 1975, according to the article by Professor Liu Renwen, a legal scholar with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top government think-tank.

He gave no figures on the number of people involved, but said such gestures had been effective in 'dissolving enmity, promoting unity, and turning negative elements into positive ones'.

He noted that it was regrettable that Beijing had stopped granting amnesty in recent decades despite the country's progress and achievements, such as winning the bid to host the 2008 Games.

Mr Ching, this newspaper's Chief China Correspondent, said in response to a journalist's question that he was unsure if his parole was linked to the Olympics. But he added: 'I'm sure somewhere in China, someone is also advocating greater leniency.'

Speaking mostly in Cantonese at yesterday's event, Mr Ching bowed deeply to his family, friends and supporters, and said he could never do enough to repay their efforts in helping to secure his early release.

He also thanked Singapore Press Holdings, which publishes The Straits Times, for hiring a legal team that not only defended him in court, but also acted as the sole channel of communication between him and his family during his three-year ordeal.

The 58-year-old veteran journalist was detained in southern China in April 2005, and was subsequently accused of spying for Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province.

Mr Ching, who has maintained his innocence all along, reiterated yesterday that he would never do anything to harm his country.

Still, reporters pressed him for details of the controversial case, and asked if he thought he had received a fair trial.

In response, Mr Ching said that it was inappropriate for him to discuss the case at this point as he was still on parole, and asked for the understanding of his fellow journalists.

His family also stressed that yesterday's event was more a tea session to express their gratitude, rather than a press conference.

Fighting back tears, Ms Ching Shui Yee, the youngest of Mr Ching's four siblings, said: 'Our father said that if Ching Cheong ever returned, we should treat those who have supported us to tea.'

chinhon@sph.com.sg