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发帖数: 901 | 1 BEIJING — The detention of an Australian Rio Tinto Ltd. employee on spying
charges could damage the business environment for foreign companies wanting
to work in China, an Australian cabinet minister said Sunday.
The comments from Financial Services Minister Chris Bowen came as Rio Tinto
employee Stern Hu began a second week in detention in Shanghai on charges of
stealing state secrets.
“The Chinese government will be very aware that it is not good for business
certainty if there’s a regular pattern of foreign businesspeople being
incarcerated,” Bowen told Network Ten television in Australia on Sunday.
“It should also be a concern for the Chinese government that if foreign
businesses feel that their degree of uncertainty is high, it will change the
way that foreign businesses around the world approach business in China,
and approach the placement of executives in China.”
Bowen spoke a day after Australia’s Trade Minister Simon Crean met with
Chinese officials and said his government was “deeply concerned” about Hu.
Crean was on a trade mission to Shanghai, where four Rio employees including
an Australian citizen Hu were detained July 5. Crean said he met with city
officials.
“The Australian government is deeply concerned about the position
surrounding Mr. Hu,” Crean told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. “We’
re concerned about his welfare, the access of the family to Mr. Hu, the
ability for him to obtain speedy expedition of his case and, of course,
legal representation, and we have been assured that that message will be
conveyed to Beijing.”
The Rio employees were detained as the world’s third-largest mining company
negotiated on behalf of global iron ore producers in price talks with
Chinese steel mills. Hu manages Rio’s Chinese iron ore business. The other
detainees are Chinese.
The Rio employees are accused of bribing Chinese steel company personnel to
obtain summaries of the Chinese negotiators’ meetings and gain an edge in
price talks, according to Chinese news reports. The maximum penalty for an
espionage conviction is life in prison.
Australian diplomats visited Hu on Friday, and Foreign Minister Stephen
Smith said Saturday that he appeared to be well and raised no health or
welfare concerns. Smith said Australia was still asking for details of the
case.
China, the world’s biggest steel producer, has criticized iron ore
suppliers for repeated price hikes and is pressing for reductions. The other
major suppliers are Australia’s BHP Billiton Ltd. and Brazil’s Vale SA.
Information on Chinese steel company ore costs, profit margins and
technology spending all are considered official secrets, according to news
reports.
The accusations reflect the communist government’s sensitivity about fields
such as steel and energy that it deems strategic and its intense secrecy
about a wide array of economic and industrial information.
“If you’re foreign, information is power in China, and they tend to think
most of their information is national security information,” said Robert
Broadfoot, managing director of Political and Economic Risk Consultancy in
Hong Kong, who has advised companies on China since the 1970s.
Rio expressed surprise at the spying allegations and said Friday it is “
committed to high standards and business integrity.” It said Chinese
authorities have not given the company any details about the case.
Employees of the China Iron & Steel Association, the iron ore price
negotiator for Chinese steel mills, are also under investigation, the
newspaper 21st Century Business Herald reported. It said an executive who
oversaw iron ore purchases for one of China’s biggest steel producers,
Shougang Group, was detained last week.
Associated Press Writer Kristen Gelineau in Sydney contributed to this
report. |
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