"China has done all of us a favour by bursting this bubble" Oh yes!
This incident appears to be a very serious miscalculation by the regime,imagine how the Chinese would behave if they controlled 95% of our mineral resources.

The Chinese resident author's standard criticisms of China’s tactics and failings would be laudable if they were available to a mainland Chinese readership.

His most telling sentence which is to China’s advantage, is "Prime Minister Kevin Rudd should hold his nerve. So far he has done everything right."

Rudd has allowed so many trade eggs to be placed in the China basket that we are becoming a dependent economy. Not a Banana Republic for America but a Resource Republic for China.

Rudd’s so called “tough talk” reported elsewhere today, is empty and lightweight.

In fact Rudd's treatment of China varies between passive and servile giving the Chinese Government confidence that it can slap poor little Australia around. The Rudd Government's encouragement of the China trade has been at the expensive of traditional Japanese and European markets for our resources. Basically China can do what it likes over our resource interests because we now have very little room diplomatically or economically to maneuver.

Reuters at http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE56C0X820090713 puts it well "Kevin Rudd, a former Beijing diplomat and fluent Mandarin speaker, appears to be losing his China halo...During his 2007 election race, Rudd promised deeper Australian engagement with Asia, and especially China, built on his tenure as first secretary to the Beijing embassy in the 1980s. He promised also to retool Australia as the most "Asia-literate" Western country through better education.

"It was highly effective in defining Rudd politically," said journalist Glen Milne in The Australian. "It now threatens to become a manifest weakness. What we are now witnessing is the harvest of Rudd's mismanagement of the China relationship."

When politicians retire they occasionally become consultants, or mouthpieces, for foreign governments. Hawke has represented Burma. We can all guess who will be paying Mr Rudd.

Pete
http://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2009/03/chinese-navy-expanding-in-indian-ocean.html

I wonder if Brian has been arrested yet?

This whole affair is nothing more than the traditional Asian situational ethics that I have encountered more times than I care to describe in various contractual dealings - usually of great monetary value.

It is very difficult to strike a mutually agreeable deal in the middle kingdom unless the "other side" feels that they are getting a significantly better deal than you are. For this reason it is very necessary to have a lot of background information on your counterpart's personal and company needs. These needs may have nothing to do with the current business deal at hand. This is probably what Stern Hu had been collecting and passing back to his superiors who have been trying to determine where they should have a mutually agreeable compromise.

Make no mistake that the Chinese have been collecting exactly the same information on Rio.

I would much rather be doing these large business deals in the US or Europe where there is a much more (western style) ethical behavior.

A very factual article.

Many a gullible Western business man has been taken to the cleaners,
for not understanding how the game is played in SE Asia.

Chin-Ning Chu wrote a book in the 90s called "The Asian Mind Game",
which makes for interesting reading. "Fairgame" is part of the
culture and business is a bit like planning a war strategy. Its
still the law of the jungle over there, but some learn the hard
way.

Trading with China is fine, relying on China is another thing
altogether. I would certainly count my fingers after shaking
hands with some of their traders. Signed contracts should not
be taken too seriously either.

Decent article but I take issue with your comment about Rudd doing everything right. He did nothing for a week while pretending things were happening "behind the scenes" which they in fact were not. It was clear he was hoping for a miracle fix which would enable him to act as if the Govt had pressed all the right buttons. Meanwhile he offered up a number of Ministers and other representatives as fodder for the press to grill. Steven Smith admitted to getting his information about the case from internet sites but the Press once again failed to identify this as completely inadequate. When it was demanded he do something personally he made a statement on TV but has said nothing since.

Remember what make a regime totalitarian is the all powerful nature of the rulers while the individual in society has no individual worth and is merely a tool to keep the regime strong.HU doesn't even get a Lawyer.

I wonder if Rudd will support HU or portray him as a criminal and dump him?

To Plantagenet,

dear Pete, thanks for your comments. I have three things to say in response:

(i) My articles are available in China, on my website. I put my money where my mouth is.

(ii) By having the moral courage to do so, I also put myself at-risk.

(iii) My 'standard' articles are just that: standard. My goal has been to inform ordinary Australians of what life is like in China. I live here, you and they don't.

That is all I have to say.

Brian.