Four Rio Tinto employees detained in China for spying
- Source: Xinhua
- [17:59 July 09 2009]
- Comments
Four employees of the Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto Ltd. have been detained on charges of stealing China's state secrets, the Shanghai state security authorities said Thursday.
They included Stern Hu, general manager of the company's Shanghai office, who was also in charge of the iron ore business in China, according to the Shanghai municipal state security agency.
Hu, an Australian citizen of Chinese origin, was detained in Shanghai on Sunday on allegations of espionage and stealing state secrets, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Wednesday.
Hu was a long-standing employee of Rio Tinto and had lived in Shanghai for a number of years with his wife, who is also an Australian citizen, he said.
The other three, who also worked in the Shanghai office and were detained on the same charges, were holding Chinese passports and the case was being investigated according to law, the agency said.
"We have been advised by the Australian government of this surprising allegation," Rio Tinto said in an e-mail statement to Xinhua Thursday. "We are not aware of any evidence that would support such an investigation."
Rio Tinto said it would continue to work to support its employees and their families. It refused to comment further on the issue.
"Rio Tinto intended to cooperate fully with any investigation the Chinese authorities may wish to undertake and has sought clarification on what has occurred," Ian Head, Rio Tinto spokesman said in an email statement to Xinhua Wednesday.
The iron ore giant was still in talks with Chinese steel mills over the iron ore contract prices. The negotiations passed the June 30 deadline as Rio Tinto stuck to its offer of a 33-percent price cut for 2009-2010 contracts, while the CISA insisted on a deeper cut.
The state-controlled Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) last week had bought 1.5 billion US dollars of Rio Tinto shares to cement its 9 percent shareholding in the miner. The deal was after Chinalco's 19.5 billion U.S. dollars bid failed last month to raise its stake in Rio Tinto.
Rio Tinto has representative offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou on the Chinese mainland.