Canada Says China Has Executed 4 Canadians

Canada's foreign affairs minister says China executed four Canadian citizens earlier this year despite the intervention of herself and former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Mélanie Joly said the four Canadians were dual citizens and faced "charges linked to criminal activities, according to China, linked to drugs," the CBC reports. "We strongly condemn the executions," Joly said. "I asked personally for leniency." China's embassy accused the Canadian government of making "irresponsible remarks," saying, "whoever violates the law of China must be held accountable in accordance with the law."

"China always imposes severe penalties on drug-related crimes and maintains a 'zero tolerance' attitude towards the drug problem," the embassy said, per Reuters, adding that Canada should "respect the rule of law and China's judicial sovereignty." The executions follow years of tensions between Ottawa and Beijing. After Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei's founder, was arrested in Canada in 2018 at the request of the Trump administration, China detained Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor on nebulous national security charges and changed drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg's sentence from 15 years in prison to the death penalty. Authorities say Schellenberg was not among the four Canadians executed this year.

"These wrongful deaths are a result of a highly politicized justice system, as the response to the 2018 arrest of Meng Wanzhou demonstrated with the detentions of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, and the change in sentencing for Robert Schellenberg from prison to death penalty," Conservative Party foreign affairs spokesman Michael Chong said in a post on X. "Executing a number of Canadians in short order is unprecedented, and is clearly a sign that Beijing has no intention of improving relations with Canada." Earlier this month, China imposed tariffs on Canadian food and farm imports to retaliate for Canadian tariffs on electric vehicles and steel and aluminum products, the AP reports. (More China stories.)