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China detains Australia mining company employees on espionage charges

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Chinese authorities on Wednesday detained four employees of Australian mining company Rio Tinto on suspicion of espionage. Rio Tinto's Shanghai manager Stern Hu, who is an Australian citizen, along with three of the company's Chinese employees are accused of obtaining state secrets illegally by bribing officials during stalled iron ore price negotiations. Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said that the government "has continued its efforts to secure consular access to" Hu, and had notified Chinese authorities of their intent to conduct a consular visit on Friday. Rio Tinto spokesman Tony Shaffer said that the company was not aware of any evidence supporting the accusations. Chinese authorities said that they would handle the case "according to the law." On Friday, an executive from Chinese steelmaker Shougang Group was also detained in connection with the Rio Tinto investigation. Last month, Chinese lawmakers considered a revised version of their state secrets law which aims to update existing legislation to address Internet leaks of classified data. In June 2007, Human Rights in China released a report saying that the state secrets system in China gives the government virtually complete power to halt the free flow of information, "undermining healthy governance and rule of law." In November 2006, Hong Kong reporter Ching Cheong began a 5-year prison term for passing state secrets to Taiwanese intelligence, after the Beijing Higher People's Court affirmed the sentence on appeal. He was released in 2008 after serving half of the sentence.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on July 10, 2009 (boomark / email).