Letters

Sorry for Palmer's comments

In the 1980s, on behalf of Alcoa and the Victorian government in Australia, I negotiated with CITIC to take a 10 percent interest in the Portland Smelter joint venture. Over a period of 18 months, we built a relationship and finalized the various agreements culminating in CITIC's successful participation in May 1986.

Almost 30 years later, it remains a participant, having increased its share to 22.5 percent. During the negotiations, my team met with many of CITIC's senior management officials. Without exception they were professional, economics-savvy and fully understood normal business and legal practices. Many held post-graduate degrees from leading universities from around the world, and they behaved like any large corporation executives in the Western world. It was indeed a pleasure to deal with them.