Beijing: An official of the Anglo-
Australian mining giant Rio Tinto on Monday admitted in a Chinese
court that he took nearly USD one million bribe in a case that
has sparked a diplomatic row between Beijing and Canberra.
Australian Premier Kevin Rudd warned that the world
will be watching China very closely, as Beijing on Monday began
the trial of four employees - Australian Stern Hu and three
Chinese colleagues - who are facing bribery and commercial
espionage charges in the eastern city of Shanghai.
"The world will be watching very closely," Rudd said
in Sydney, adding "The Australian government will be
monitoring the trial very carefully."
Tom Connor, the Australian consul-general in Shanghai
who attended the court session said Hu had "made some
admissions" on the bribery matters, BBC reported.
He "did acknowledge the truth of some of those
bribery amounts", he said.
Connor said Hu was accused of taking bribes of 1
million yuan (USD 146,000) and USD 790,000, but he did not
give any details.
The trial of the four who were arrested in July last
year, is due to last three days.
Rio Tinto's chief executive, Tom Albanese, said that
the company remained committed to strengthening ties with
China.
Stern Hu was Rio Tinto's lead negotiator in the
talks with Chinese steel mills to try to settle a price for
China to buy iron ore from Australian mining companies.
He and three of his Chinese colleagues - Liu Caikui,
Ge Minqiang and Wang Yong - have been held in detention since
July 5 last year.
Apparently at least one of Hu's colleagues also
admitted taking bribes. The four were charged with commercial
espionage and bribery.
The charge for espionage is punishable by up to seven
years in prison and lengthy term for bribes.
The case was "obviously of great concern to us. We can
only say we respectfully await the outcome of the Chinese
legal process," Albanese was quoted as saying by the
state-run Xinhua news agency.
The world's second-largest iron ore supplier's ties
with China could be traced back 50 years as it had provided
aluminium to China in the 1960s, Albanese said at the China
Development Forum 2010 in Beijing.
It was a "pity" that his company lost a chance to
forge a strategic partnership with Chinese state-owned
aluminium producer Chinalco last year, Xinhua reported.
Rio Tinto declined Chinalco's offer of a USD 19.5
billion cash injection in June last year and decided to raise
capital through a USD 15-billion rights issue.
Albanese said he would be glad to see the two
companies agree to build a joint venture to develop a rich
iron ore deposit in Guinea.
Chinalco is poised to invest 1.4 billion USD in the
Simandou project to take a 47-percent stake in the joint
venture.
The company's ties with China were strained last year
partly because of Chinalco's rejected deal and the arrest of
four Rio Tinto employees.
A month before their arrests, Rio scrapped a USD 19.5
billion deal with China's state-owned Chinalco in favour
of a tie-up with rival giant BHP Billiton, which angered some
in Beijing.
But ties have since improved - last week Rio Tinto
signed a deal with Chinalco to develop a massive iron ore mine
in Guinea.
The trial is being watched by foreign firms in
China very closely as this is the first time that employees of
a company from abroad were slapped with such charges.
The Rio case comes amid the government's row with
Google which is planning to pull out of China complaining of
intrusive censorship laws.
PTI
First Published: Monday, March 22, 2010, 19:59