China has extended a probe into detained Rio Tinto mining executive Stern Hu (胡士泰) by two months, Australian officials said yesterday, calling for a quick resolution to the long-running case.
An Australian foreign office spokesman said Chinese authorities had announced a second extension to the investigation into Hu, who was arrested in July and accused of industrial espionage and bribery.
“We were informed during the consular visit on November 9 that the Chinese authorities had extended the investigation by another two months,” a foreign office spokesman said.
“This is in addition to the earlier one-month extension already approved by the Chinese authorities,” he said.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said he would raise the issue with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎) on the sidelines of the APEC forum in Singapore.
Further details of the case against Hu, arrested along with colleagues during iron ore contract talks, may not be known until the middle of January.
Smith said a speedy resolution was “in everyone’s interest.”
“We have different systems, different values and as a consequence of that from time to time ... differences will arise and we understand and accept those differences,” he said in Singapore.
Hu originally faced more serious allegations of stealing state secrets, but Beijing later downgraded the accusations.
Rio made no immediate comment yesterday on the extension of the investigation.
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