By Rob Taylor
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto
The mining giant said it had also not been informed of any charges against its detained staff, which include Rio Tinto's top iron-ore salesman in China, Australian Stern Hu.
Hu and three Chinese colleagues were detained a month ago on suspicion of spying on Chinese steel mills. Rio, the world's second-largest iron ore producer, and Anglo-Australian firm BHP Billiton
"We are still not aware of any evidence that would support their detention," said Rio's iron ore division chief Sam Walsh.
"We continue to be concerned for the health and welfare of our three other employees detained at the same time as Stern Hu," Walsh said in a statement, noting that the Australian government had informed the company that Hu was well.
The Rio detentions have cast a shadow over Australia-China trade, worth $53 billion in two-way terms in 2008.
In a growing war of words between Australia and China, Australia's Foreign Minister Stephen Smith delivered a veiled warning on Tuesday for Beijing to rein in its diplomats after its embassy tried to block a speech in Canberra by an exiled leader of China's Uighur Muslim minority.
An article published online by China's state secrets agency at the weekend said Rio spied on Chinese mills for six years, resulting in the mills overpaying $102 billion for iron ore, Rio Tinto's biggest earner.
The Australian government on Tuesday brushed off the Chinese report accusing Rio of overcharging and spying on Chinese steel mills, saying it had not been officially sanctioned.
"It is now quite clear, given that the article has been taken off the website, that it was essentially the opinion of the individual writer, and not if you like officially sanctioned," Smith said.
Rio Tinto's shares were some 2.2 percent lower at A$57.22 at midday on Tuesday, continuing a 3 percent slide the previous day amid investors nerves over the miner's relations with China.
AUST-CHINA TIES
Australian diplomats had made a fresh appeal for China to grant legal representation to China-born Hu after they were allowed only their second visit to his Shanghai detention center late last week, Smith said.
"We were very pleased to see that his health and welfare continues to be in good order," Smith told state radio.
Chinese newspaper the 21st Century Business Herald on Tuesday quoted Jiang Ruqin, the author of the article that laid out the Rio allegations, as saying it reflected only his own views.
Jiang said his claim of losses from Rio's spying activities came from earlier media reports, but he did not reveal where he had got information that Rio had been spying for six years.
The website (www.baomi.org) was inaccessible on Tuesday, but the article could be found on other Chinese-language websites.
David Kelly, a professor of Chinese studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, speaking in Beijing, said it was unclear how much Chinese government weight was reflected in the article.
"I would suggest that at least it reflected a powerful view of at least part of the bureaucracy," said Kelly.
In a further sign of brittle relations, the Chinese embassy's political counselor, Liu Jing, asked management at Canberra's National Press Club last week to drop an invitation to Rebiya Kadeer to speak on Tuesday, the club said.
Kadeer is blamed by Beijing for instigating last month's ethnic riots in Xinjiang province, which left 197 people dead, mostly Han Chinese, and wounded more than 1,600.
"Embassies, diplomats, officials are entitled to put views in Australian society, but when they put those views, those views have to be put appropriately," Smith said.
The Australian newspaper said in an editorial on Tuesday that Australia's Mandarin-speaking prime minister, Kevin Rudd, was increasingly irritating Chinese leaders with his conviction that he had a special relationship with Beijing and could therefore be outspoken on Chinese internal affairs.
The newspaper said China had no right to censor in Australia.
"This contempt for freedom of speech and utter disregard for the values of other countries demonstrates that China is still a dictatorship," the newspaper said in an editorial.
(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley in BEIJING and James Grubel in CANBERRA)
(Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
