China has said it acted “in accordance with the law” over the execution of four Canadian citizens in recent weeks.
Melanie Joly, Canada’s foreign minister, told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday that China had defied pleas for leniency.
“We strongly condemn the executions that did happen against Canadians in China,” Joly said.
She said she was unable to discuss details as the victims’ families had requested privacy.
However, Beijing suggested on Thursday the Canadians had been convicted over narcotics offences. “Combating drug crimes is the common responsibility of all countries,” Mao Ning, foreign ministry spokesman, said.
“China protects the legitimate rights of the parties concerned as well as the consular rights of the Canadian side, in accordance with the law.”
Beijing also defended the executions to Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper.
“Drug-related crime is a severe crime recognised worldwide as extremely harmful to society,” its embassy said.
“China always imposes severe penalties on drug-related crimes and maintains a ‘zero tolerance’ attitude towards the drug problem.”
Statistics a state secret
Joly said she and Justin Trudeau, the former prime minister who left office last week, had asked China for leniency.
China classifies death penalty statistics as a state secret, although rights groups including Amnesty International believe thousands of people are executed in the country every year.
Beijing said this week a former Chinese engineer had recently been sentenced to death for leaking state secrets to a foreign power.
The arrest of a senior Chinese telecoms executive on a US warrant in Vancouver in December 2018 and Beijing’s retaliatory detention of two Canadians on espionage charges plunged relations into a deep freeze.
Ties were strained further over allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021.
In 2023, Joly expelled a Chinese diplomat who had been accused of targeting a Canadian opposition politician who criticised the ruling Communist Party, as well as his family.
Ottawa has also criticised a security crackdown in Hong Kong and China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.
