Judgment has been reached in the Rio Tinto case, with all four defendants predictably found guilty on charges of bribery and theft of commercial secrets. However, the impact on business in China is likely to be considerable - and not for the most often-cited reasons.
Of course, Beijing did not behave well, violating a consular agreement by barring Australian observers from part of the trial on the grounds that commercial secrets were involved. But one does not expect rule of law on the mainland.
It is Rio Tinto's conduct that is disconcerting. The company appeared too eager to distance itself from its four executives, announcing their dismissal as soon as the guilty verdict came in.
Rio declined to comment on the theft-of-commercial-secrets charge, saying only that, since that portion of the trial was closed, it did not have an opportunity to consider the evidence.
It is important to remember that the two charges - bribery and theft of commercial secrets - were separate and unrelated. Yet, if it were not for the commercial-secrets charge, Stern Hu, formerly Rio's general manager in China and an Australian citizen, would have probably received a five-year sentence, rather than 10 years.
And, in some ways, the commercial-secrets charge was more serious, having caused the country to suffer economic losses.
The official Xinhua news agency reported that the four men - Hu, Wang Yong, Ge Minqiang and Liu Caikui - had, from 2003 to last year 'used improper means to acquire commercial secrets from Chinese steel companies' and the information was used to 'jack up the price that China paid for its iron ore imports'. Last year alone, it said, Chinese steelmakers paid an extra 1 billion yuan (HK$1.14 billion) for iron ore imports.