Chinese has extended Rio probe by a month
China has extended by a month a probe into suspected corporate espionage by employees of Rio Tinto, a defence lawyer said, a case which strained ties between Australia and its second-largest trade partner.
The four employees, including Australian citizen Stern Hu, were detained on suspicion of stealing state secrets shortly before a deadline for concluding annual iron ore negotiations between Chinese steel mills and the world’s three top miners, Rio, BHP Billiton and Vale.
Their formal arrest in August included the charge of stealing commercial secrets, but not the more serious state secrets charge.
The extension of the investigation came on the request of the public security bureau, said Zhang Peihong, a lawyer for Wang Yong, a member of Rio’s Shanghai-based iron ore team.
A senior Chinese official at Shougang Steel in Beijing was also detained, and many other Chinese steel officials investigated in what many in the industry viewed as a bid by the China Iron and Steel Association to gain control over the fractious sector.
Lawyers for the other three defendants either could not be immediately reached for trial, or did not comment.
The case stoked alarm in the foreign investment community and a debate in China about the state secrets law, which can be broadly applied to cover a variety of information deemed sensitive.
Following this extension, authorities may grant two more extensions of two months each, Zhang said.
Australia was one of the first countries to formally recognise China in 1972. China is now Australia’s second-largest trading partner, with two-way trade last year worth $53-billion.
But relations have been tense after Chinese state-owned metals firm Chinalco failed in a $19,5-billion bid for a stake in Rio and a decision by Australia’s government in July to grant a visa for an exiled Uighur separatist.
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