China’s state secrets watchdog has accused mining multinational Rio Tinto of engaging in commercial spying over six years, saying data on Rio computers showed the espionage came at a huge loss to China.
The report and other comments from the agency said the case of four Rio employees detained and accused of espionage, including one Australian, could foreshadow stricter controls on how foreign companies do business in China.
Rio has said its employees did nothing unethical and did not bribe Chinese steel mills for information.
The report issued by China’s National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets said Rio Tinto’s commercial spying involved “winning over and buying off, prying out intelligence, routing one by one, and gaining things by deceit” over six years.
“The large amount of intelligence and data from our country’s steel sector found on Rio Tinto’s computers and the massive damage to our national economic security and interests are plainly obvious,” said the Chinese-language report, issued on the administration’s Web site on Saturday.
China has detained the Rio workers — Australian Stern Hu (胡士泰) and three Chinese colleagues — on allegations of stealing state secrets about iron ore price negotiations.
The detentions have raised worries about doing business in China, strained ties with Australia and overshadowed critical price talks.
Rio’s share price, however, has been little affected.
The new Chinese report said Rio’s spying meant Chinese steel makers paid more than 700 billion yuan (US$102 billion) more for imported iron ore than they otherwise would have.
It did not explain how it arrived at this estimate.
A Rio spokeswoman in Australia said yesterday she was unaware of the Chinese report and declined to comment further.
The report from the secrets watchdog suggests the Chinese government is unlikely to drop the Rio case and could instead use it as a springboard for tougher information controls on domestic and foreign businesses.
It said the case should force Chinese officials and firms to do more to protect sensitive information, and that foreign businesses in China must come under stricter controls to deter them from spying.
“Our country has entered a peak period of commercial espionage warfare, and the threat to important economic intelligence and security of national economic activity increases by the day,” the report said.
The report and others on the agency’s Web site said the government should spell out more clearly what commercial data count as official secrets.
Contacts between local officials, experts and managers and foreign businesses should also be more strictly controlled, the report on Rio said, adding that “traitors” were enriching themselves at the expense of Chinese businesses.
“The Rio Tinto spying case has again sounded the alarm over secrets protection by our country’s state-owned enterprises and corporations,” Luo Jianghuai, a secrets protection official, wrote in an essay accompanying the report on Rio.
Luo said multinationals used Chinese staff with experience in local businesses and government to illicitly gain information and influence.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS