The US State Department says the Obama administration is "deeply disturbed" over the death of Chinese human rights activist Cau Shunli.

Cau, 52, died of organ failure at a Beijing hospital on Friday after reportedly being refused treatment at a detention center where she stayed following her arrest in September.

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Cau's family told US media that she had been suffering from tuberculosis and liver ailment for months but was denied medical treatment by Beijing.

Cau was arrested on September 4 while attempting to fly to Geneva to attend a United Nations seminar on human rights procedures.

The British government echoed the Obama administration's concern over Cau's death on Monday.

China's foreign ministry scored the foreign governments for making comments on Cau's death, stressing that the activist's "lawful rights and interests have been protected in accordance with law."

"We continue to be concerned about the human rights situation in China and will continue to urge Chinese authorities to guarantee all Chinese citizens the protections and freedoms to which they are entitled under China's international human rights commitments," the State Department said in a statement.

The United States has repeatedly called China to what it believes is a worsening case of human rights violations there.

The State Department's pronouncement on Cau's death, and China's insistence that other countries should not interfere in its sovereignty in the guise of protecting human rights, were the thorny issues that greeted incoming US Ambassador Max Baucus, who arrived in Beijing today to assume his post.

Baucus told the press upon his arrival that he will urge the Chinese government to respect international human rights norms, just as he told the Senate panel that confirmed his appointment in January.

His predecessor, Gary Locke, took an acerbic parting shot from Chinese media when he stepped down as US envoy in late February.

In an opinion piece, state-run media called Locke, who is a third generation Chinese-American, a "banana" for having a yellow skin and a white heart, meaning that the outgoing envoy may be Chinese by descent but kowtows to American foreign policy.

Locke's relationship with the central government took a turn for the worse when he visited China's restive regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, and helped blind activist Chen Guangcheng seek refuge in the United States.

Already, there are suggestions on how Ambassador Baucus can avoid similar run-ins with the Chinese government during his upcoming term.

A Chinese scholar at Woodrow Wilson International Center, Zheng Wang, says Mister Baucus should "be an ambassador, just an ambassador."