A court in Shanghai today sentenced Stern Hu, executive of the British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto in Shanghai, to ten years in prison on charges of accepting bribes and stealing trade secrets. His colleagues Wang Yong was given 14 years, Liu Caikui seven years and Ge Minqiang eight years.

I am sure the coming days we’ll see more analysis and commentary on the case than anyone can possibly digest. No one will be able to shed light on exactly what was done, to whom and for what reason.

What is clear however is that today, many white collars will feel tighter than usual for executives of foreign businesses in China, as they scrutinize their own actions, assessing the risk of ending up in a cell next to Mr. Hu.

But blame should not be left entirely with those that are sent out to do business here, if anyone was thinking of passing that judgment. Today’ sentence holds a message to all headquarters of companies with business in China: they should think long and hard about what they have done to minimize the risk of their employees engaging in illegal or unethical behavior.

The milk scandal of 2008, in which New Zealand’s Fonterra got caught involved in the practice of adding melamine to milk, illustrates the first mistake companies make when they start a business in China; inadequate research. That the milk industry in China had serious problems was fairly well-known, it was a so called open secret. Still, Fonterra got caught in a scandal that could possibly have been avoided.

The second error is to not provide enough support for local staff. Foreign managers are sent into a business culture they don’t understand, and with unreasonable expectations to quickly conquer the Chinese market. That creates incentives to cut one or two corners.

Management back home sometimes refuses to accept stories of how it is impossible to uphold ethical standards. No wonder local managers may opt to stay silent and hope for the best instead of questioning the feasibility of doing business in China.

Being able to do successful, ethical and legal business in China is a matter of dedicating enough thought power and management bandwidth to the China operation. Considering how important the Chinese market is to many companies, it is surprising they don’t. In the end, that leaves local staff very vulnerable.