China’s opaque institutions and dubious commitment to the rule of law make it hard to tell exactly what Australian Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu and his unlucky colleagues are meant to have done. They must feel as if they are caught up in a Kafka novel. Senior Rio Tinto executives and Australian officials are adamant that they are blameless.
At one point it looked like they would be charged under Beijing’s repressive state secrets laws, but when Hu was eventually charged last week it was for the lesser offences of bribing officials and stealing commercial secrets. China’s political leaders may have been unnerved by the strength of the international reaction and looked for a way to lower the temperature.
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