Chinese officials have detained Stern Hu, Rio Tinto‘s head of marketing and sales in China and an Australian citizen, on suspicion of espionage and stealing state secrets, a move that could stoke tension between the two countries, the FT said. Mr Hu’s detention comes amid fraught talks over iron ore pricing and follows Anglo-Australian Rio’s recent decision to abandon a plan to sell a $19.5bn stake to Chinalco, the Chinese state-owned mining company. But Stephen Smith, Australia’s foreign minister, ruled out any link between the Mr Hu’s detention and any commercial matters concerning Rio.

This entry was posted by Stacy-Marie Ishmael on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 4:27 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A. Tagged with australia, china, chinalco, rio tinto. Edit this entry.