According to recent remarks made by the Chinese government in the magazine of the National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets, Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has been allegedly spying on China's steel industry for nearly six years, thereby costing the country 700 billion yuan ($102 billion) in unwarranted charges for iron ore.

The remarks from Chinese authorities - posted in an article on the magazine's Website, http://www.baomi.org - have come in the wake of the Chinese detention of four Rio Tinto employees of the Shanghai unit, on the accusation of stealing state secrets pertaining to the negotiations of iron ore price.

The article stated: "China gave the employer of those economic spies more than $100 billion for free, which is about 10 percent of Australia's GDP. It also caused the serious consequence of climbing losses in China's pillar industry of steelmaking."

Though the statements essentially underline the need for Beijing to revamp its 'state secrets' proceedings - in order to ward off any systemic threat to its economic security
- they also indicate that the detention of Rio Tinto employees may initiate a widening crusade, instead of being considered just another case!

Already the detentions have strained the China-Australia relations - with Rio having abandoned a $19.5 billion deal with China's Aluminum Corp., with four months of negotiating apparently the biggest overseas investment by China.