Australian governments have been encouraging Australian businesspeople to use illegal means including bribery to conduct bussiness overseas. We still clearly remember the Iraq wheat export scandle. What a shame!
Now the message from China is loud and clear, i.e., they are prepared not to do business with Rio Tinto and they are better off not to do business with Australia. To be honest, Australian market is very small, and chinese companies can easiily increase internal trade to compensate the loss. However if Rio Tinto cannot get into chinese market then the company will be in big big trouble because it doesn't have enough cash but debts. I'm sure that banks are looking at the matter closely.
A good business relation has its foundation, that is, it must benefit both party. However what Rio Tinto and Australian government have been doing has serverely undermind this foundation. Should Chinese government turns a blind eye to Australian companies which rip off chinese through illegal means? Behind door, Chinese officials have said that they prefer to deal with Mr Howard (but not Mr Rudd).
Again, Chinese businesspeople in Australia must obay Australian law while Australian businesspeople in China must obay Chinese law.
