China justifies arrest of Rio Tinto Shanghai exec

SYDNEY – A top Chinese official has called on Canberra to respect China’s legal system, saying a mining executive held in Shanghai would have broken Australian law if his alleged crimes had occurred here.

Chinese authorities detained Australian citizen Stern Hu and three other employees of mining giant Rio Tinto on July 5 and accused them of bribery and stealing state secrets during iron ore contract negotiations.China’s Vice Foreign Minister, Liu Jieyu, who is visiting Australia, defended his government’s highly-contentious arrest of Hu and urged Canberra not to interfere in the case.’The facts of the case would constitute a violation of Australian laws were the facts (to) happen here in Australia,’ Liu told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) late Sunday.’The Chinese government respects the independent judiciary of the Australian judicial system. I think we would expect the same from other countries,’ he told the public broadcaster.No charges have yet been laid against
the accused employees, but China has
told the Australian government it has ‘sufficient evidence’ that they stole state secrets.The detentions have sparked a diplomatic row between the major trading partners, with Beijing earlier telling Canberra not to interfere after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned its economic interests were at stake.Liu defended the decision to prosecute Hu and his colleagues, saying it was in the interests of overseas businesses working in China.’By dealing with this case, we are really establishing or we are really trying to establish a good environment for all companies in China – foreign companies operating in China and local Chinese companies,’ he told the ABC.Rio Tinto has said that reports its employees had bribed steel mill officials during tough iron ore contract negotiations were ‘wholly without foundation.’China is the biggest buyer of iron ore in the world and is also Australia’s second-largest trading partner. The value of two-way trade between the partners was around 68 billion Australian dollars last year. – Nampa-AFP