Word: rudd
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Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned that the detention of an Australian mining executive in Shanghai on espionage charges has the potential to upset China's trade relations with his nation and the rest of the world...
...Speaking to reporters yesterday, Rudd issued his toughest comments yet in the case of Stern Hu, a Chinese-born Australian executive with mining giant Rio Tinto. Last week the Shanghai State Security Bureau arrested Hu and three Chinese colleagues on suspicion of industrial spying and stealing state secrets related to iron-ore prices. The arrests came amid acrimonious ore-price negotiations between Chinese steelmakers and global mining companies. (See pictures of Chinese investment in Africa...
...Australia of course has significant economic interests in its relationship with China," Rudd told reporters on July 15, "but I also want to remind our Chinese friends that China too has significant economic interests at stake in its relationship with Australia and with its other commercial partners around the world...
...Rudd, a Mandarin speaker who once served as a diplomat in Beijing, has pushed for closer relations with China, Australia's biggest trading partner. Until now his government has avoided "megaphone diplomacy" in the Rio Tinto case, but pressure from the opposition has led Rudd to take a much tougher stand as Hu nears two weeks in detention. "A range of foreign governments and corporations will be watching this case with interest and be watching it very closely," Rudd said. "And they'll be drawing their own conclusions about how it is conducted." (Read "China Buys Australia On the Cheap...
...flight back east from Perth, Rudd glances at the necktie that he has cast aside before landing in Melbourne, where he will deliver another slew of speeches. He rubs his eyes, then launches into a defense of international activism. "You can sit around quietly on the global diplomatic circuit and get nowhere," he says, "or you can ball up a few ideas, some of which have some prospects." It's not a bad blueprint for any nation navigating a place in this globalized world. Makes you wonder whether Australia couldn't export that having-a-go spirit along with...