The arrest of four employees of the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto Ltd. on charges of allegedly illegally obtaining commercial secrets and bribery has exposed some multinationals' lack of legal responsibility.

Liu Renwen, research fellow of the Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the case showed that everyone, regardless of nationalities, should abide by the law in China -- even though in the past, some local governments preferentially treated foreign companies in order to attract investment.

Shanghai prosecutors approved the arrest of the four Rio Tinto employees, a statement of China's Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said late Tuesday.

Preliminary investigations showed that the four employees, Stern Hu, an Australian citizen of Chinese origin and general manager of the company's Shanghai office in charge of the iron ore business in China, Liu Caikui, Ge Minqiang and Wang Yong, had obtained commercial secrets from China's steel and iron industry through undisclosed improper means, which had violated Article 219 of the country's Criminal Law pertaining to the crime of violating commercial secrets.

Prosecution authorities also found evidence to prove that they were involved in commercial bribery in breach of Article 163 of the Criminal Law about receipt of bribes by personnel other than governmental employees, including staff of companies. Prosecutors did not provide details.

The four were detained in Shanghai in early July on charges of stealing China's state secrets, the Shanghai state security authorities said.

Liu said investigation of the case did not end as prosecution authorities did not bring it to court. Currently, these four people face two charges.

Investigators are still looking for evidence for possible charges of offering bribes and theft of state secrets which is much more serious in terms of penalties, legal experts say.

The law says suspects charged with obtaining commercial secrets would face criminal punishment of 15 days to seven years. Those charged with "receipt of bribes by non-State personnel" would face sentence terms of up to 15 years. They also might only face detention if the crime is petty. These two charges could be combined for multiple offences.

But for the crime of state secret theft, the severest punishment could be execution.

Procedures in line with law

Liu said the detention and arrest of the four Rio Tinto employees was strictly in accordance with the law.

According to China's Criminal Procedural Law, detention should not exceed 37 days. Hu and the other three employees was arrested on August 11, 37 days after they were detained on July 5.

The law says if prosecutors do not approve arrest, suspects would be released on bail or live at home under surveillance.

Lawyer Qian Lieyang of Beijing's Dacheng Law Office told China Youth Daily that if a case was complicated and suspects faced several accusations, they were unlikely to be released on bail and prosecutors would approve arrests on certain charges for which they obtained enough evidence.

Investigation would end within two months after the four were arrested, according to the law, and the investigative period can extend to five months.

Preliminary investigations have also revealed that there were suspects in China's steel and iron enterprises who were providing commercial secrets to them. The arrest of those suspects has also been approved by prosecutors, the SPP said.

These suspects in Chinese enterprises would face the same charges of illegally obtaining commercial secrets with the four employees. But for state-owned enterprise staff, they would face a bribery charge, a category that only targeted officials and state enterprises. The highest penalty for them could be execution.