China Charges Four Rio Executives With Bribery, Xinhua Says

China arrested four Rio Tinto Group workers on charges of infringing trade secrets and bribery, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing a statement from the nation’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

They are Stern Hu, head of the company’s iron ore business in China, Liu Caikui, Ge Minqiang and Wang Yong, Xinhua said yesterday, citing the statement. Initial investigations showed the four had obtained commercial secrets about China’s iron and steel industry through improper means, violating the nation’s criminal law, Xinhua said, citing the statement.

The six-week detention of the Rio sales executives, Australian citizen Hu and three Chinese nationals, has strained relations between the two nations. Australia, which said today it hadn’t received formal advice of the arrests, has said the detentions may be part of a criminal probe into iron ore talks.

Hu “will most certainly face trial and the laws of judicial probability in China suggest that he will be found guilty,” Michael McKinley, a professor of global politics at Australian National University in Canberra, said today by phone. The Chinese government seems “quite happy for this to be made a reasonably high profile case both within China and outside,” he said.

Rio Tinto fell 1.7 percent to A$56.94 at 10:07 a.m. Sydney time on the Australian stock exchange.

China, the world’s biggest buyer of iron ore, is Australia’s second-biggest trading partner, with two-way trade valued at A$68 billion ($56 billion) in 2008. China is also Australia’s largest source of foreign investment. Hu has been held since July 5 after police searched Rio’s Shanghai office.

Claims Denied

Rio has denied the bribery allegations and said that it wasn’t aware of any evidence that would support an investigation by Chinese authorities. Hu’s arrest was an individual judicial case and wasn’t political, Qin Gang, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, said July 9.

Rio spokeswoman Amanda Buckley declined to immediately comment on the Xinhua report. The company said yesterday it hadn’t had any contact with the four executives since their detention.

Australia made its second consular visit to Hu on Aug. 7, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said today on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. The government continues to take a close interest in Hu’s welfare, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said today in an e-mailed statement.

“We are continuing to make representations in Beijing, Shanghai and Canberra in support of this Australian citizen,” the department said in today’s statement. “Hu is now subject to Chinese law and Chinese legal and judicial processes. link....