Football is a game that time and space. Your position:Home->china news-> China Investment in Australia Soars Then China detained four Rio Tinto employees from the miner's Shanghai operations. At one point, China maintained one of the workers had stolen state secrets, then later claiming the company illegally obtain information that resulted in China's steelmakers being overcharged more than $100 billion for iron ore. Beijing backed off that claim, before on Tuesday approving the formal arrest of the four Rio Tinto employees on charges of infringing trade secrets and bribery. From Chinese officials ordering Google to stop showing some results from foreign Web sites, to the brouhaha over the Web-filtering software called Green Dam-Youth Escort to the Rio imbroglio, it seems that again and again we read of warnings that Chinese actions could result in a slowing of business to the Middle Kingdom. But then along comes today's news that Australia's Felix Resources said its directors agreed to a 3.54 billion Australian dollar (US$2.95 billion) takeover by China's Yanzhou Coal Mining. Sure, the requisite warnings are there: 'The deal could face difficulties in gaining regulatory and shareholder approval,' and the deal 'also comes as disquiet grows from some politicians and commentators about the amount of Chinese investment in Australia's mining sector.' Slowing deals Hardly. The Felix Resources would constitute the largest full takeover of an Australian company by a Chinese entity, surpassing China Minmetals' $1.4 billion acquisition of Oz Minerals' mining assets earlier in the year. It also would increase China's total investment in Australia this year to $9 billion, more than four times last year's year-to-date total, according to Dealogic. That's right, despite the tensions, China is spending more on Australian deals than ever before. Australian deals have accounted for about 29% of China's $31.18 billion of total cross-border M&A by dollar volume this year, according to Dealogic. And its deals in Australia are getting bigger. In 2006, the average size of its six deals was just $12 million. This year, that figure is $282 million for 39 deals. Gregory Corcoran 
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