China’s commercial state secrets – Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber by Fantake via Flickr

Many of the larger Chinese companies are state-owned, says analyst Arthur Kroeber in a comment to Australian media, making passing on their information an infringement of state secrets. Four employees of the Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto got arrested by Shanghai State Security and one of their executives, Stern Hu, got charged for violating state secrets, just after a major deal with state-owned Chinalco fell through. Arthur Kroeber:

“It certainly raises an issue for foreign investors, which is the definition of state secrets in China includes a lot of commercial information in state enterprises,” Dragonomics managing director Arthur Kroeber said.

“If you take information out of a state enterprise and give it to any kind of foreign party, you can under Chinese law be accused of violating the state secrets law.”

Commercial
Arthur Kroeber is also a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do let us know if you need him at your conference.