China says has conclusive evidence against Australian spy

China has surprised just about everyone with its recent arrest of four employees of the world’s second largest mining company, Rio Tinto. The detainees – one Australian and three Chinese – have been accused of espionage and the stealing of state secrets.

It’s a little suspicious that the arrests follow last month’s collapse of a $19.2 billion investment deal between Rio Tinto and the state-owned Chinese company Chinalco. Australia’s foreign minister Stephen Smith does not think the arrests are necessarily related to the broken deal, but from our vantage point, it certainly seems to be a possibility!

The deal seemingly went bad because it did not get approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board – perhaps a result of the general clamoring that the agreement would put Australian resources at strategic risk.

The Australian arrested is Stern Hu, the general manager of Rio Tinto’s Shanghai office, where the three Chinese employees are based as well.

A Chinese government website reports the following:

“As understood from the Shanghai State Security Bureau, during China’s iron ore negotiation with foreign miners in 2009, Stern Hu gathered and stole state secrets from China via illegal means, including bribing internal staff of Chinese steel companies.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has explained that “relevant Chinese departments took action against him according to law on the strength of conclusive evidence that he stole China’s state secrets on behalf of overseas interests, thereby seriously damaging China’s economic interests and economic security.” The reference to ‘conclusive evidence’ has been cited often in the media, but of course China has not given any indication as to the nature of said evidence.

Smith is one of the many surprised by China’s reasons for the accusations and arrests, but he has explained to the Australian public that China’s definition of what constitutes state secrets and national security is much wider than in other countries – in other, less diplomatic words, China’s pretty paranoid.

photo: Reuters