If the fate of the former chairman of Sinopec is anything to go by, it is the executives of Chinese steel companies and not of Rio Tinto who should worry about allegations of wholesale bribery in iron ore negotiations. According to Xinhua news agency, Sinopec’s Chen Tonghai on Wednesday received a suspended death penalty for alleged bribery. Chairmen who complain about having to preside over a stormy investor meeting or restrain an expansionist chief executive suddenly have a new and frightening perspective on the risks and rewards of their job.

Nevertheless, the detention in China of Stern Hu, Rio’s chief iron ore negotiator – followed now by lurid accusations against Rio in the state-owned China Daily – will send a shiver through all non-Chinese companies that have placed a big bet on the relative predictability of the Chinese market compared with, say, the wilder reaches of the Russian economy.