When Gary Locke, the new US commerce secretary, touched down in Beijing this week to lobby on behalf of American trade interests, he also carried with him a brief representing the interests of a third country.
Mr Locke has promised to raise with Beijing's leaders the case of Stern Hu, the China-based Australian executive of Rio Tinto, the mining giant, in detention in Shanghai awaiting charges for alleged espionage and stealing state secrets.
“All we can say right now to the Chinese government . . . [is] simply urge greater transparency and following of due process,” Locke said in a Bloomberg Television interview yesterday in Beijing. “Until people have the full set of facts, how can we make any judgments?”