Fairfax correspondent John Garnaut wrote that detained Australian businessman Stern Hu is 'widely known in China and at Rio Tinto for his integrity and quietly spoken good judgment'. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said he was 'perplexed' by Hu's arrest by officials at China's Ministry of State Security.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday that authorities had the evidence needed to prove that the Rio executive stole state secrets, and that he had 'caused huge loss to China's economic interest and security'.
Unfortunately not all reaction to the arrest has been as circumspect as that of Foreign Minister Smith. In fact there's more than a touch of arrogance in much of the comment. Australians have rushed to the assumption that the arrest is payback for Rio's rejection of the Chinese Government-owned Chinalco's $A24.7 billion bailout deal, after it was no longer needed to keep the company out of financial trouble.
Soon after news of Hu's arrest, Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce issued a statement that declared: 'Chinalco's failure to buy an 18 per cent ownership of Rio would appear to have inspired Mr Hu's arrest and that of three other Rio workers.'
Pride in our nation and a desire to protect its interests can easily cloud our perceptions of other countries' legal systems. It may even cause us to assume that if one of our nationals gets caught on the wrong side of the law in a foreign country, they are innocent just because they're Australian.
We only need to remind ourselves of the widespread and confident declarations of Schapelle Corby's innocence in the face of her prosecution and sentencing for smuggling drugs into Indonesia in 2004. These have been anything but vindicated in the five years since Corby's arrest.
There are many manifestations of national pride and the arrogance and irrationality that often come with it. In the lead up to Kevin Rudd's meeting with Pope Benedict XVI last week, Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Tony Abbott was warning that it would be inappropriate for Rudd to lobby the Pope for the canonisation of Blessed Mary MacKillop. According to Abbott, he would disturb the purity of the canonisation process. It's just not done, he said. An announcement coinciding with the centenary of MacKillop's death on 8
August would indeed be a proud moment for Australia. But appropriate expressions of pride
must come after a process, not before it is complete.
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