Ms Xiaoye Wang, a senior adviser to the Chinese State Council and National People's Congress, has warned that a USD 132 billion hostile takeover of Rio Tinto by BHP Billiton would be harmful to China and unfair to the global economy.

Ms Wang has urged European regulators to reject the proposed takeover, saying that any merger would affect all Asian economies, which rely heavily on iron ore imports for steel production.

She said that "In my opinion this merger will have a very bad impact on China. The BHP merger should be reviewed by the Chinese anti-monopoly agency. China is the biggest consumer of iron ore products and 40% is from Australia. After the merger there will be two competitors only. I believe this is harmful for competition."

She said that China's ministry of commerce had already received objections to the merger however it has no regulatory jurisdiction over any transaction between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

It may be noted that Australian Competition & Consumer Commission gave permission for BHP Billiton's planned takeover of Rio last week, but the merger remains conditional on clearance from the European Commission, Canada and South Africa.