Haaba

China issued rules Monday to protect commercial secrets at state-owned enterprises, a few weeks after four employees of Australia's Rio Tinto were jailed for industrial espionage.

The rules issued by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission classified items such as strategic plans, financial information and resource reserves as commercial secrets.

A commercial secret was defined as information unknown to the public that can bring economic benefit to state-owned companies, the agency charged with overseeing such enterprises said on its website.

The rules also give the government the option to reclassify commercial secrets as state secrets, which would carry a more severe penalty if violated.

The new guidelines come weeks after a Chinese court jailed four employees of mining giant Rio Tinto including Australian national Stern Hu on bribery and commercial secrets charges.

Hu and three Chinese staff were convicted of accepting bribes totalling around 13 million dollars and stealing commercial secrets during fraught iron-ore negotiations with Chinese steel mills.

The court found that the four had stolen trade secrets including the minutes of a China Iron and Steel Association meeting and information on Chinese steel giant Shougang's output.

The four received jail terms ranging from seven to 14 years.