The blurred line between Chinese 'state secrets' and commercially confidential material highlighted in the Rio Tinto case has uncovered another dirty secret: the failure of many mainland firms to protect valuable business information.
Two weeks after the formal arrest of four mainland-based employees with global miner Rio Tinto on commercial secrets infringement charges, Irvin Qiang says his industry is still reeling from what looks set to be China's highest-profile business confidentiality case.
Mr Qiang, who works for a corporate crime investigation firm in Shanghai with a clientele of both multinational and domestic firms, said his foreign clients are scrambling to figure out how to fine-tune their information collection practices after the Rio Tinto fallout.
'But more interestingly, Chinese companies, particularly those state-owned firms, have for the first time in years shown interest in earnest in raising their game in enforcing confidentiality rules,' he said.
Chinese firms often lack the know-how to protect business secrets concerned with their core competencies, analysts and lawyers said.
They say that the money-for-information skulduggery Rio Tinto is accused of is a rule rather than the exception in China's business community and usually goes unpunished.
The four Rio Tinto employees implicated, led by Australian national Stern Hu, the company's chief iron ore salesman in China, allegedly bribed Chinese executives for key production and sales data that had given the Anglo-Australian miner an unfair advantage in the marathon iron ore supply talks.
