Rio 'spy' case: Stern Hu officially charged

By John Garnaut

(SMH) -Chinese prosecutors have finally approved the formal arrest of Rio Tinto iron ore chief Stern Hu and three Chinese colleagues, laying charges of bribery and obtaining commercial secrets, news agency Xinhua reported overnight.

The brief report did not say the four had been charged with stealing state secrets, raising the prospect that authorities have significantly downgraded the case.

Xinjing Bao newspaper reported the case was being investigated under Article 219 of the Criminal Law code which is a commercial secrets provision rather than a state secrets provision.

"That puts it in the business context rather than the realm of state secrets," said Jerome Cohen, professor of law at New York University. "This would seem to be a lowering of the temperature somewhat."

Foreign affairs officials and the Ministry of State Security last month claimed Mr Hu and Liu Caikui, Ge Minqiang and Wang Yong had been stealing state secrets to cause huge economic losses to China.

If the state secrets accusations against Rio Tinto's China iron ore team have been dropped, this would open the way for a far more transparent judicial process, lighter sentenses and perhaps even the possibility of Mr Hu being deported back to Australia.

"Preliminary investigations have showed that the four employees, Stern Hu, Liu Caikui, Ge Minqiang and Wang Yong, had obtained commercial secrets of China's steel and iron industry through improper means, which had violated the country's Criminal Law," reported Xinhua, citing a statement from the China's Supreme People's Procuratorate late last night.

"Prosecution authorities also found evidence to prove that they were involved in commercial bribery," the report said.
"Investigations have also revealed that there were suspects in China's steel and iron enterprises who were providing commercial secrets for them."
John Garnaut is China correspondent for the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald .