When Rio Tinto Met China’s Iron Hand
For eight years, Stern Hu rose every morning at 6 a.m. in Qingpu Prison near Shanghai. Everyone in Brigade No. 8, the foreign prisoners unit, knew Hu. Chinese-born, with an Australian passport and a shock of white hair, he’d been a star at Rio Tinto Group, one of the world’s largest mining companies, before being sent to prison in 2010 for stealing trade secrets and taking bribes.