another week, page-6

The Chinese are big on cracking down on corruption having put several high ranking officials to death in recent times. The Chinese also see those Chinese people living overseas as 'overseas Chinese' ("Hua Qiao") that is to say once Chinese always Chinese. Individuals may not see it that way but regardless where you are born or what passport or nationality you hold you are still considered Chinese.

My point in this is that I believe that Stem Hu was reported as being an Australian but that's not how the Chinese will see him. That will be unfortunate for Hu. The Shougang exec may have been operating by himself with HU to gain some advantage.

Having said all that there have been a number of scandals such as this that see the execs carted away and the company carry on as usual.

There is some suggestion this is some form of retaliation for all that is going on in the steal industry eg RIO deal etc etc to put pressure on the Australia Government. However spying charges are extremely serious. I guess the more serious the better for Chinese leverage.

Will this have an affect the ARH deal who knows but it was an exec from (state sponsored) Shougang not Shougang itself who has been put in jail.

Cheers
BW