A Taiwanese political science professor was detained on Friday for allegedly providing Beijing with data on visiting Chinese activists by tapping into police computers, a prosecutor and media reports said.

Wu Chang-yu of Central Police University was detained pending the filing of formal charges, prosecutor Huang Mou-hsin said without elaborating.

The Liberty Times newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying Wu asked a junior police officer and former student of his to tap into the computers of the National Police Agency last year to acquire entry and exit data related to a key Chinese dissident. The dissident was not identified.

Another newspaper, the United Daily News, quoted unidentified sources as saying Wu frequently visited China to lecture on fortunetelling, his other specialty. It said Chinese officials offered him lucrative fortunetelling contracts in exchange for spying on the Taiwan activities of selected Chinese. None of the alleged targets were named.

Taiwan and China continue to spy on each other despite a recent improvement in their relations amid growing economic ties. The two sides split amid civil war in 1949.

Taiwan has allowed visits by Chinese activists supporting Tibetan independence and other political dissidents whom China views as a threat to its security.

Two prominent Chinese dissidents, Wu'er Kaixi and Wang Dan, have spent extended periods on the island. They have been banned from returning home because of the key roles they played in the 1989 democracy movement in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.