An ‘Economist’ article titled ‘The steel fist of government’:

•    reiterates China’s current detention of 4 Rio Tinto executives;

•    says “The Rio case comes on top of other, less publicised moves which involved bewildering use of the legal system and may also have been motivated by economic nationalism. In June three managers at Guangdong Development Bank in southern China were detained over unspecified matters”; and,

•    I think importantly, says “News of detentions often emerges, if at all, not from the authorities but from informal sources including the news media or family members. This only adds to suspicions about the true motives behind the investigations. One lawyer says his foreign clients are not waiting around for more information: they have begun asking to have their names removed from the boards of domestic Chinese operations, just in case they are next”.

The last quote to me points in the same direction as my first reaction to the Rio Tinto detentions I wrote about 10 days ago when the detentions were first announced.  I think that without establishment of clear ‘what constitutes State Secret rules’ this type of activity on China’s part is far more than a ‘tempest in a teapot’.  At the very least in can only be ‘reverse chicken soup’ in the context of China/developed country trade relations – where ‘reverse chicken soup’ is defined as ‘it can’t help and it might hurt’.

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