A Chinese executive once touted as the future head of steelmaker Shougang (首鋼) was jailed for leaking commercial secrets to employees of Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto who have since been jailed, a court official said yesterday.
The Rio Tinto case strained ties between China and Australia, while creating jitters among foreign investors wary of Beijing’s sweeping definitions of what constitutes a secret.
The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court jailed Tan Yixin (譚以新) for three and a half years and fined him 300,000 yuan (US$44,000) in a closed-door trial in March, the official said by telephone, requesting anonymity.
Another steel executive, Wang Hongjiu (王洪九), shipping manager of Laiwu Steel (萊鋼) in the eastern coastal province of Shandong, was jailed for four years and fined 400,000 yuan in the same case, the official said, declining further comment.
The fate of the two was discussed in Chinese media before the Rio Tinto trial, but not mentioned since. Court officials had until now declined to comment on the cases.
Tan and Wang were accused of being the source of some of the leaks to China-born Stern Hu (胡士泰), an Australian national who headed Rio Tinto’s iron ore operations in China, and three Chinese colleagues who were sentenced in March to jail terms ranging from seven to 14 years for stealing commercial secrets and taking bribes.
Originally the four were charged with stealing state secrets, but this charge was later dropped.
The court official did not say what specific information Tan and Wang were convicted of turning over. Previous Chinese media reports said they had been charged with disclosing commercial secrets, including steel production costs and iron ore inventories — information that could benefit Rio Tinto during contract price negotiations with Chinese customers.
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