Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday warned China that the world is watching how it deals with an investigation into four detained employees of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd.
Rudd urged China to consider its economic ties with other countries as it dealt with the men, who have been held since July 5 on espionage charges. Three are Chinese nationals and one is an Australian citizen.
“Australia of course has significant economic interest in its relationship with China,” Rudd told reporters in Sydney. “Let me also remind our Chinese friends that China, too, has significant economic interests at stake in its relationship with Australia and with its other commercial partners around the world.”
China is Australia’s biggest trading partner.
Rudd said it was in the best interests of all countries to resolve the matter.
“A range of foreign governments and corporations will be watching this case with interest,” Rudd said. “They’ll be drawing their own conclusions as to how it is conducted.”
Australian Stern Hu (胡士泰), an executive for Rio Tinto Ltd, and the others were detained on July 5 amid contentious iron ore price talks with Chinese steel mills. State media say they are accused of bribing Chinese steel company employees to obtain confidential information on China’s negotiating position in the talks.
Rudd confirmed that the Australian government had not received a direct briefing from the Chinese on why Hu had been detained.
The detentions have complicated the price talks between China and iron ore suppliers and raised concerns of a disruption in the industry, as China is quickly becoming the main global consumer of iron ore.
Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Yao Jian (姚堅)said yesterday the spying charges would not affect investment in China.
“The confidence of foreign investment in China’s legal environment has strengthened during China’s 30 years of opening up,” Yao said.
“This single case won’t affect China’s trade and capacity of attracting foreign investment at all,” Yao said at a news conference on China’s latest foreign direct investment figures.
One part of the row may be quietly put to rest after sources said the two major miners, Rio and BHP Billiton, had secured tacit agreement with Chinese mills for a 33 percent price cut in iron ore, the same deal agreed with other Asian customers in May, effectively winning the marathon pricing battle.
The sources, including people on both sides of the negotiations, said some mills had agreed to a six-month contract and some a year, but there would be no formal announcement by the China Iron & Steel Association, which represented big Chinese steel makers in this year’s talks.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft