China sticks to it's beatdown...

After the Rio Tinto deal went south and the Australian goverment had no balls to broker a deal (economically in their best interest). China has got the ugly stick out and they are swinging...

from Bloomberg

"July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Rio Tinto Group, deadlocked in talks on iron ore prices with Chinese steel mills, said four of its employees have been detained for three days in Shanghai.

Rio hasn’t had contact with the workers from the Shanghai office since they were detained July 5, and doesn’t know why they are being held, spokesman Nick Cobban said yesterday. Stern Hu, an Australian national and head of Rio’s iron ore operations in China, was arrested by the Public Security Bureau on the weekend, Australian Senator Barnaby Joyce said today. A media official at Shanghai’s Public Security Bureau wouldn’t comment, saying they are checking with other departments.

Steel mills in China, the world’s largest buyer of iron ore, are seeking a bigger price cut than the 33 percent agreed on in May between London-based Rio and Japanese, Korean and Taiwan producers. Rio last month abandoned a $19.5 billion investment by Aluminum Corp. of China, four months after agreeing to what would have been China’s biggest overseas investment."