Australian FM to speak to his Chinese counterpart about Rio executive Stern Hu

rio_tintoThe Australian Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, who has flown to Thailand on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio before leaving that if the Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi is also present at the meeting, he would "speak to him about Stern Hu."

Stern Hu, who is an Australian mining executive of the Shanghai-based Rio Tinto Ltd., has been accused by China of stealing state secrets, and has been detained. However, he has not been charged thus far.

Expecting to meet his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting, Smith said he seeks to enquire into why Stern Hu was taken into custody on July 5, during the course of the debatable iron ore price talks led by the world's biggest mining company, Rio Tinto, with the Chinese steel mills.

Ever since the detention of Hu, along with three other Rio Tinto employees, Australia has largely had to go by the Chinese media reports to gather all possible details pertaining to the case; and this has perturbed Australia no end!

Going by the Chinese state media, the detained Rio Tinto employees were bribing Chinese mills' executives to obtain access to industry data, which is considered 'secret' by the communist China government.