Lianhe Zaobao: Rio Tinto turmoil China and Australia have room for reflection

Xinhua Beijing, July 20, Singapore, "Lianhe Zaobao" recently published the Qiu Earthquake Sea article that the Australian Rio Tinto employees in China to steal Chinese confidential incidents have room for reflection. In the first place, Rio Tinto could not escape its responsibility for stealing secrets. Australia launched a propaganda campaign, as if the spy had become victims, it should not. From the Chinese side, there is a more important question to ponder: In recent years, national cadres and public officials have been bought by foreign espionage agencies have repeatedly occurred, and the level has been rising.　　The main reason behind this is corruption.　　The article extracts the following: Australian Rio Tinto employees in China to steal the Chinese secret incident caused a storm.　　Is it necessary for Australian executives to intervene? Rio Tinto's Shanghai office Four people were recently arrested by Chinese police for allegedly stealing Chinese state secrets. Later, according to the mainland media, Rio Tinto in the iron ore negotiations with China, has repeatedly used various methods to obtain the inside information of Chinese steel companies, and finally make themselves in the negotiations in an invincible position. At the same time, the Chinese steel Association and some steel companies, the heavyweight figures have been investigated, and the scope of the investigation continues to expand.　　Almost at the same time, Rio Tinto has started to evacuate its workers involved in iron ore and steel industry research. In another context, Rio Tinto abruptly announced the cancellation of Chinalco's stake plan one months ago. At the time, Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd said it was an enterprise, not government-related. As a result, after the arrests of Rio Tinto employees, some public opinion has speculated that this may be China's retaliation for the dismantling of the Rio Tinto Agreement.　　But various sources have revealed that Rio Tinto has bribed more than 10 Chinese steel companies in the past few years. As the incident escalated, Mr Rudd, who met with former US Vice President Al Gore, said at a joint press conference how China handled the detention of Rio Tinto employees would be a matter of concern to many Governments and companies.　　Mr Rudd said Australia does have huge economic interests in China, but it also needs to remind Chinese friends that the economic interests of China in Australia and even other co-operative countries are now at stake. The above expression is clearly a threat, it does not seem to conform to the "China Pass" style, in essence, is not in line with Australia's many claims that the political and economic separation principle.　　　　Mr Rudd's comments come as the West's focus on Rio Tinto has increased markedly, even as some public opinion has raised it to the point that it may affect foreign investors ' confidence in China's economic environment.　　Rio Tinto steals secrets. However, in this case, there are a number of layers to be carefully combed, and gradually return to the incident with its original appearance, and reflect on both sides of the solution. It must first be admitted that Rio Tinto's use of various means to steal the secrets of Chinese steel companies is indeed a fact.　　In this regard, even Rio Tinto, as a party, cannot be denied, and secondly, whether the secrets of the Chinese steel companies that Rio has stolen are purely commercial secrets or, to some extent, classified as state secrets, a problem that may be disputed due to different national circumstances. But the West has aThe saying goes, "the things of God belong to God, and Caesar's things are Caesar's." Rio Tinto is the first to steal the secrets of Chinese steel companies.　　However, whether from Mr Rudd's statement or from the propaganda campaign launched in Australia these days in international opinion, a Chinese sentence may not be appropriate to the old saying that is, "ashamed, think proud", as if China has investigated the commercial spy case, or China's wrong, spy has become the victim. Of course, the extent to which the Rio Tinto spy case can be attributed to the theft of state secrets, due to different national circumstances, may differ in the interpretation of the law. But in the western countries, all of the energy, steel and other enterprises related to the national strategy, the enterprise behavior is never a simple business behavior, but there will be political considerations involved.　　In this sense, it is not improper for China to classify information relating to steel companies as state secrets, and, of course, stricter definitions are still to be defined by judicial experts in accordance with the law. Corruption leads to espionage. On the Chinese side, in addition to defining state secrets and putting aside the Rio Tinto case, there is a more important question to ponder: In recent years, national cadres and public officials everywhere have been bribed by foreign espionage agencies, and the level has been rising.　　The main reason behind this is corruption. Corrupt officials are hardly a rarity, and corrupt officials have long been commonplace. Why can't you sell state secrets if you can be a lot of corruption? Anyway, it's all money. Since you can own a mistress, why can not accept other people to come to the woman, anyway come are beautiful.　　Although only the sand table deduction, but the logic behind it is very reasonable, because both lack of faith, even the basic civil servants do not have the professional ethics. Someone once said, officials are greedy because their income is not high, the body head upside down, but today's civil service income has been greatly increased, but some people are still greedy, this is not a "high salary honesty" can solve the problem, but need more institutional constraints and professional ethics of education and norms.