BEIJING (Commodity Online): China’s iron ore talks and the arrest of Rio Tinto have invited a lot of brickbats from several nations.

China had arrested four employees of Rio Tinto on charges of spying during the iron ore price talks.

Following this, the country had cracked down on other officials in Chinese officialdom for leaking information to foreign companies.

These moves had drawn flak from the US and other nations.

US said these are of great concern to US investors and multinational companies from around the world that have projects here.

Rio Tinto, which is co-listed in both Australia and England,  allegedly bribed executives from 16 of China’s major steel mills to obtain industry information. Rio Tinto has denied claims of wrongdoing.

Rio Tinto recently was involved with annual negotiations on supply contracts with Chinese mills. The arrests come just a month after Rio Tinto broke a more than $19 billion investment deal with China state-owned Chinalco.

US said China should come clean on the allegations and the country should show more transparency in its talks on iron ore pricing.