Hu Shitai is the chief representative of Rio Tinto and the general manager of China’s iron ore business.
Hu Shitai himself is a member of Rio Tinto’s iron ore negotiation team. Rio Tinto’s Shanghai office is mainly engaged in sales and marketing.
“According to the provisions of Article 111 of the Criminal Law, Hu Shitai is suspected of committing the crime of stealing, spying, bribery, and illegally providing state secrets and intelligence for overseas purposes.” Member of the Criminal Defense Committee of the China Lawyers Association, Beijing Kyoto Law Firm Lawyer Dong Xuan, a partner of the firm, told the National Business Daily yesterday.
After Hu Shitai "explored China's national secrets and caused significant damage to China's national economic security and interests," there has been constant controversy about Hu Shitai's "spy identity."
“Hu Shitai is not an ordinary commercial crime.” Lawyer Dong Xuan made it clear that Hu Shitai’s behavior of stealing the bottom line of iron ore price negotiation has two characteristics. One is that it involves national interests, and the other is that it has an international background and is related to General commercial crime is significantly different.
Judging from the information currently disclosed by various media, Hu Shitai and others not only have detailed data on the procurement plans, raw material inventories, production arrangements, sales and other information of many steel companies, but they even purchase steel products including iron and steel through various means. Secrets including the bottom line of ore price negotiations. "Whether the 'bottom line' of iron ore negotiations is a state secret cannot be clearly defined under current legal regulations." A senior person in the legal field told a reporter from the National Business Daily, but judging from the reactions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the national security department, this " Bottom Line" has been deemed a state secret.
"The China Iron and Steel Association is negotiating with Rio Tinto on behalf of the country. The results of the negotiations will not only affect the interests of the entire steel industry, but also affect the automobile and home appliance industries surrounding the steel industry." There is a steel person who does not want to be named Experts told reporters that stealing the bottom line of China Iron and Steel Association's price negotiations is equivalent to stealing some of the economic operation secrets of all steel-related industries across the country, until it affects the trend of the entire national economy.
Some steel companies said that Hu Shitai "should be guilty of both commercial crimes and stealing state secrets."
As Rio Tinto's largest customer, China is facing an oversupply of iron ore. Today we still have no bargaining power, and we have paid 700 billion more in 6 years. After verification, Hu Shitai was a national scum trained by Peking University and had caused the greatest loss to the country so far!