The Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper received confirmation from the nation’s government on Wednesday that the Chinese Communist Party killed four Canadians imprisoned on allegations of “drug-related offenses.”
The Canadian Department of Global Affairs did not name the individuals or specify what crimes they allegedly committed. Other details, such as when these individuals were killed and how, were also omitted from the report. The National Post reported that, while the Globe and Mail listed four victims, neither Ottawa nor Beijing confirmed a final number of Canadians killed this year by the Chinese government.
The Canadian government, currently led by unelected interim Prime Minister Mark Carney, has not at press time specified that it will take any measures to impose “repercussions” on Beijing for executing its citizens, though it did condemn the killings as “inconsistent with basic human dignity.” The Chinese Foreign Ministry also confirmed the executions but insisted that China was a “country that upholds the rule of law” and the rest of the world should accept the disappearance and killing of its citizens in China’s repressive and opaque “justice” system as an exercise in sovereignty.
The revelation that China killed Canadians follows mounting tensions between the two countries fueled by years of compiled evidence of Chinese meddling in Canadian elections and an exacerbating trade war that most recently saw China impose a 100-percent tariff on Canadian canola oil, one of its biggest exports to the country, and peas, among other goods. Ottawa is simultaneously facing mounting tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on goods entering America, its largest trade partner, in response to what Trump describes as negligence in protecting the mutual border and confronting the China-fueled fentanyl trade.
The Globe and Mail reported that the Carney government only revealed the four executions after the newspaper asked the government for a clarification. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly confirmed the killings and the status of the victims as dual Canadian-Chinese nationals.
“The minister said she and former prime minister Justin Trudeau had intervened in recent months to ask Beijing for leniency as part of an unsuccessful effort to avert the executions,” the Globe and Mail reported. In addition to admitting that Trudeau, whose family has deep ties to the Chinese government, failed to convince the Communist Party not to kill his citizens, Joly also did not indicate that Canada would take any retaliatory measure in response to the executions.
Global Affairs separately said in a statement that the Canadian government “repeatedly called for clemency for these individuals at the senior-most levels,” presumably including personal appeals from Trudeau, “and remains steadfast in its opposition to the use of the death penalty in all cases, everywhere.”
The victims remain anonymous, the Canadian government told reporters, in response to a request by their families.
Asked about the executions on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning suggested that Canada was being disrespectful for even raising the issue.
“Canada should respect the spirit of the rule of law and stop interfering in China’s judiciary sovereignty,” Mao scolded.
“Combating drug-related crimes is the responsibility of all countries. China is a country that upholds the rule of law,” the spokeswoman asserted. “The law treats everyone the same regardless of nationality. The Chinese judicial authorities handle those cases justly in strict accordance with the law.”
Mao claimed that China “fully protected” the rights of the killed. The English-language translation of her comments published by the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not indicate that she acknowledged that the people in question are now dead.
China and Canada have endured a contentious relationship despite Trudeau, who has professed admiration for the Communist Party, governing the country for a decade.
“There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China,” Trudeau said in 2013. “Because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and saying ‘We need to go greenest fastest, we need to start, you know, investing in solar.’”
A major point of contention between the two governments is the extensive evidence that China meddles in Canadian elections, targeting lawmakers and political candidates who oppose Chinese communist interests in Canada with propaganda. In 2023, the Canadian government expelled a Chinese diplomat after revelations that he was involved in attempts to harm the campaign of Member of Parliament (MP) Michael Chong, a vocal anti-communist, and relatives in Hong Kong.
“It shouldn’t have taken the targeting of a member of Parliament to make this (expulsion) decision,” Chong said at the time. “We have known for years that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is using its accredited diplomats here in Canada to target Canadians and their families.”
Chong, who currently serves as shadow foreign relations minister for the Conservative Party, called the executions “unprecedented” in a statement on Wednesday.
“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,” he observed.
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