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The Rio Tinto trial is being held in the Shanghai Number One Intermediate People's Court - Source: Reuters -
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Four employees of mining giant Rio Tinto stood trial in China,
while the company's chief executive said in Beijing that Rio
remained committed to working with the key Asian customer.
Australian national Stern Hu and three Chinese employees of Rio
faced prosecutors in the court in Shanghai, China's financial hub,
all accused of taking bribes and violating commercial
secrets.
The case has highlighted the risks of doing business in a country
with a huge market but close ties between the ruling Communist
Party, police and courts.
While the trial got underway in a concrete building near an
elevated highway in Shanghai, Rio chief executive Tom Albanese
signalled to an audience in the Chinese capital that he did not
want to jeopardise business ties with China, the world's biggest
consumer of iron ore.
"This issue is obviously of great concern to us," Albanese told a
forum of officials and executives, referring to the case.
"I can only say we respectfully await the outcome of the Chinese
legal process," he told the forum, held in an exclusive state
guesthouse.
Albanese said "we remain committed to strengthening our
relationship with China, not just because you are our biggest
customer, but because we see long-term business advantages for both
of us."
Foreign reporters were not allowed to attend the forum, and Rio
emailed copies of Albanese's speech.
A Chinese webcast of it did not include his comments on the
trial.
The four employees from Rio's iron ore team, including Hu, were
detained last summer at the height of fraught negotiations over
2009 ore prices, creating a furore over China's opaque state
secrets laws.
Chinese media last summer accused the four of seeking information
about Chinese mines and steel mills, which many firms consider
legitimate market information.
Rio has said that its employees did nothing wrong.
Shanghai is likely to want the case over quickly, before its much
ballyhooed 2010 World Expo opens in Shanghai in May.
Foreign reporters were not allowed to attend the trial.
China has excluded Australian diplomats from observing the part of
the trial concerning commercial secrets, drawing protests from
Canberra, which says they have the right to be present for the
whole trial, scheduled to last three days.
Before entering the court, Australia's Consul-General in Shanghai,
Tom Connor, told a crush of reporters he would make a statement
after the day's proceedings.
Warning to Australia
A Chinese researcher in a think-tank run by the nation's Ministry
of Commerce said there was a strong case against the Rio employees
and warned Australia to keep a distance.
"The Australian government and public need to calmly and rationally
consider this question: should the government waste such a large
amount of political and financial resources to pay the bill for
certain companies' immature and even illegal ways?" the researcher,
Mei Xinyu, wrote in the Chinese-language Shanghai Securities
News.
"What Rio Tinto and Stern Hu did would be utterly taboo in any host
country," wrote Mei.
The trial opened on the same day that, according to one Chinese
news report, internet giant Google may announce whether it will
pull out of China over its complaints about censorship and
hacking.
Mindful of the international attention paid to the Rio case, China
has stuck strictly to its own legal deadlines for moving the case
from police to the court system.
Defence lawyers interviewed on Friday did not yet know in which
order the charges would be considered, or which days would be open.
The verdict may not be immediately announced.
