Beijing, August 09: China’s state secrets watchdog has accused mining multinational Rio Tinto of engaging in commercial spying for six years, saying in a report that data found on Rio computers showed the spying came at a huge loss to China.
Rio has said four employees detained in China, accused of espionage, did nothing unethical and has denied they bribed Chinese steel mills for information.
But 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 a website (www.baomi.org) of the secrets administration on Saturday.
China has detained the four Rio workers — Australian Stern Hu 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 the critical 2009 iron ore price talks. Rio’s share price, however, has been little affected.
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.
The new Chinese report claimed Rio’s spying meant Chinese steel makers paid over 700 billion yuan ($102 billion) more for imported iron ore than they otherwise would have. It did not explain how it arrived at this estimate.
The report also said the Rio case should force Chinese officials and companies to do more to protect sensitive commercial information, and 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 state secrets website say the government should spell out what commercial data count as official secrets and also enforce stricter controls on interactions between foreign companies and Chinese businesses.
The report on Rio appears in the August issue of the secrets watchdog’s official magazine, Secret Protection Work, according to the website.
—–Agencies