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Australian businessmen arrested in China for spying

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Thursday, July 9, 2009

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On Sunday July 5, Australian businessman Stern Hu along with three other Rio Tinto employees were arrested by Chinese officials claiming they have evidence that the men damaged China's economy and security. The arrest come after the failed US$19.5 billion bid by state owned Chinalco to obtain an 18% stake in Rio Tinto and during the annual iron ore supply and price negotiations.

Tan Yixin, a senior executive of the Chinese steel maker the Shougang Group with close ties to the group, has also been detained for alleged crimes relating to the trade of raw materials. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Qin Gang cautioned Australia against politicising the issue. The maximum penalty for espionage in China is life imprisonment.

While Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean prepares to leave for meetings in Beijing over the issue, the Australian Labor Government has called for the opposition parties to discipline Nationals Senator leader Barnaby Joyce over comments linking the failed bid to the arrests as being grossly irresponsible. Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull called on Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to contact the Chinese government and demand that Hu, an Australian citizen, be released and granted access to consular officials.

On Thursday Xinhua News agency confirmed the arrests, the first official announcement since the group was detained on Sunday. The Xinhua News Agency also reported that a number of Chinese nationals have been detained and authorities are considering further investigations into China's steel production in the Shandong and Hebei provinces


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  This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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