The following are excerpts from /A’s Week in Retrospect. The site will go live in a month and will offer intelligent aggregation of North and Southeast Asian news headlines by journalists in the region.
[Week of July 13-19]
Rio Tinto case a warning to foreign business in China
The arrest of Stern Hu and three other employees of the Australian mining giant Rio Tinto in China for bribery and espionage is panning out to be a learning lesson for foreigners doing in business in China. The closest thing to concrete evidence to support allegations has been a China Daily article quoting an “industry insider” who accused Rio Tinto employees of bribing executives of 16 Chinese steel mills. This week China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang directly accused Hu of spying and referred to Australian public opinion as “noise” that interferes with China’s judicial affairs. Some experts argue that this arrest, which comes amidst a deadlock in iron ore price negotiations, could be retribution for Rio’s recent walk away from a $19.5 billion investment deal with Chinalco. How Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd deals with this diplomatic challenge could have serious implications for Australian’s relations with China. The two countries are key trading partners, their combined trade totaling $53 billion in 2008, with iron ore taking up $14 billion of that.
Read more on ChinaStakes , Asia Wall Street Journal , Financial Times
Jakarta bombings derail Indonesia’s peaceful path to democracy
Indonesia was rocked this week after four years of relative peace when two bombs blasted the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriot hotels in Jakarta last Friday, leaving nine dead and 53 injured. Asia’s most wanted terrorist, Noordin Mohammad Top, is believed to be behind the suicide bombings which have set Indonesia back after years on track to becoming the world’s third largest democracy with the world’s largest Muslim population. The attacks come after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s re-election, revealing that his approach to containing terrorism has not been foolproof. Days after the attack there is a sense of urgency to get Indonesia back on track; “Indonesia’s very soul is at stake” writes the Jakarta Globe. One week after national elections Indonesians were expecting an anti climatic return to the norm, “But after this week, we probably need an even stronger morning-after pill to face a new reality about our country” says the Jakarta Post. These attacks and recent shootings near a gold and copper mining operation in Papua means that the government “must lead the country once again out of this new crisis.”
Read more on Jakarta Post , Jakarta Globe
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