China sentences Canadian to death on ketamine drug charge amid diplomatic row between two countries

Xu Weihong told he faces capital punishment - but a Chinese accomplice has only been jailed

Guangzhou (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A Chinese court has sentenced a Canadian citizen to death on charges of producing drugs, amid rising tensions between the two countries.

Xu Weihong was handed the capital punishment for manufacturing ketamine on Thursday at a first trial in the eastern city of Guangzhou.

The sentence comes as relations between Beijing and Ottawa grow increasingly strained following the arrest of a Huawei executive in Canada.

Meng Wanzhou was detained in Vancouver in December 2018, at the request of Washington, on suspicion of covertly violating US sanctions on Iran. A judge has since ruled she should be extradited to the US.

Since then China has arrested two Canadians on suspicion of spying and sentenced at least two others to death on drug charges.

The Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court said on Thursday that Xu and Chinese accomplice Wen Guanxiong were found guilty of making 265 pounds of Ketamine in October 2016, according to the state-run Yangcheng Evening News.

Prosecutors said Xu had purchased raw ingredients and tools before cooking up the drug in a villa belonging to his Wen – who was sentenced to life in prison.

It remains unclear whether or not either defendant will appeal against the ruling.

China issued capital penalties to two other Canadian citizens last year on drug offences in what has widely been interpreted as retaliation against Ottawa’s arrest of Xu.

In January 2019, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was handed the verdict in the north-eastern city of Dalian after the judge had changed his original 15-year jail sentence.

Schellenberg, then 36, was detained in 2014 on suspicion of smuggling crystal meth from China to Australia.

Then in April 2019, Fan Wei, the Canadian leader of an international drug-trafficking gang, was sentenced to death in the southern city of Jiangmen.

Beijing has also formally charged two Canadians, ex-diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor, with spying since the diplomatic hostilities began.