RIO Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese is to visit Beijing this month to attend a high-powered conference that usually attracts top Chinese officials.

The event could mark an opportunity for Mr Albanese to engage senior Chinese officials in a semi-public forum over four Rio employees detained in July last year amid widespread criticism of the company's activity in its largest market.

It could also provide a gauge of how Rio is regarded by China.

A Rio spokesman said Mr Albanese visited China fairly regularly and was likely to attend the development forum.

Company officials would not say when Mr Albanese last travelled to China, but it is understood he has been there since the four were arrested.

Rio is among the most profitable foreign companies operating in China, where it booked $10.69 billion in revenue last year, or 24 per cent of its global total, driven by the steel industry's demand for iron ore.

Yet it has faced tough challenges there, including intense criticism from the government and steelmakers of its iron ore pricing policy.

The detention of Rio's top China mineral salesman, Stern Hu, an Australian citizen, and his three Chinese-national deputies, followed the breakdown of both iron-ore pricing talks and a plan for Chinese investment in Rio. They were charged in Shanghai last month with taking bribes and stealing commercial secrets from China's steel industry.

Lawyers say the indictment is a signal the four are likely to be put on trial, possibly along with local steel company executives.

Rio has denied its employees have done anything wrong. Mr Albanese said last year that a top priority was rebuilding Rio's relationships in China.

The invitation-only China Development Forum presents an opportunity for personal diplomacy.

"It's the single most important conference in China," Morgan Stanley Asia chairman Stephen Roach said. The 11th annual forum, from March 20 to March 22, is to be opened by vice-premier Li Keqiang, who is expected to rise to premier in a political shuffle planned for 2012.

To be held in the leafy grounds of the Diaoyutai State Guest House, the conference brings together titans of global business (about 37 multinational company chiefs) with leading Chinese officials, regulators, businesspeople and academics.

Being invited to the forum offers foreign executives a rare opportunity to meet and develop relationships with China's most senior policymakers.

Source: The Australian