Word: ironical
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...Chinese state-owned enterprises have snapped up major Australian mining stakes. But the biggest deal didn't go through. The state-owned Aluminum Corp. of China, better known as Chinalco, was supposed to take a $19.5 billion stake in Australian-British Rio Tinto, which controls, among other mines, vast iron-ore deposits in Australia. The bid sparked a huge controversy in Australia, with the political opposition running TV ads skewering any proposed deal. In June Rio Tinto's shareholders backed out, arguing that the company's recovering stock price allowed them to consider other offers. In the end Australian-British...
...Tensions have also been exacerbated by the economy's increasing dependence on Asian markets. The long economic boom came courtesy of Asian - read Chinese - demand for Australian commodities such as iron ore, coal and bauxite. In large measure, Australians understand the benefit of this regional trade. "The Australian people are enormously practical about the reality of China," says Rudd. "That hundreds of thousands of Australian jobs, directly or indirectly, depend on Chinese trade is something Australians...
...company involved in this case make it anything but routine. The arrests have thrown already-fraught relations between Australia and China - its largest trading partner - into an uproar, and for good reason: Stern Hu and his deputies were in charge of Rio Tinto's negotiations over the price of iron ore with Chinese steelmakers. China is now the word's largest consumer of iron ore, and Rio its largest supplier - shoveling vast amounts of high-quality ore from its huge mines in western Australia. The price negotiations were ongoing at the time of Hu's arrest, and are hugely sensitive...
...been China's largest foreign direct investment ever: a planned $19.5 billion stake that Chinalco - Beijing's largest state-owned aluminum company - had offered Rio late last year, when prices for the commodities it mines had hit rock bottom as the global recession took hold. Since then, prices for iron ore and other commodities have rebounded, in no small part because of demand from China, which is in the midst of a huge, government-led investment spree to combat the recession. Rio spurned Chinalco, did a joint venture with international competitor BHP Billiton, and announced a rights issue to raise...
...have Rio Tinto's point man on the iron-ore price talks arrested now, on charges of violating the state-secrets law, stunned Canberra - as well as much of the foreign business community in China. "People here are intensely interested to see if there's any substance to these charges, and to what extent the government will make them public," said the director of one foreign-business association in China, who did not want to speak on the record. "If this is seen as political, it could obviously have a chilling effect." A Rio spokeswoman said the company "is aware...