Treatment of Aliens

The unfolding legal drama of the Rio Tinto spying case saw a sensational report on a Chinese website affiliated with the State Secrets Bureau that claimed that the British-Australian mining giant engaged in commercial espionage for at least six years, costing China about $100 billion (a figure based on a calculation according to which China should have received all her iron ore imports in the past six years virtually for free). Perhaps realising that the report was too bad to be true, the Bureau announced shortly that it had not authorised anyone to release comments on the case. While the state secret charges sent chills down the spines of multinational executives doing business in China, the Chinese prosecutors suddenly dropped the much more ominous charges of stealing state secrets against the four Rio Tinto employees, including an Australian citizen, and would instead pursue charges of commercial bribery and trade secrets infringement. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd cautioned China to deal fairly, openly and judiciously with the accused because the world would be watching how she handled the case.