Canadian drug smuggler Robert Lloyd Schellenberg attends the court for his retrial on Monday at the Intermediate People's Court of Dalian in Northwest China's Liaoning Province. Photo: courtesy of Dalian Intermediate People's Court

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Chinese judicial organs handle cases independently in strict accordance with the law and legal procedures and Thursday's death sentence handed down to a Canadian for making drugs will not affect China-Canada relations.  

Canadian citizen Xu Weihong was sentenced to death on Thursday by a court in China for producing drugs, while his accomplice, Chinese national Wen Guanxiong, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court in South China's Guangdong Province made a first-instance judgment on the drug production case on Thursday morning. Xu was sentenced to death, and the court also ordered the confiscation of all his personal property.

The other defendant, Wen, male, 45, from Guangzhou, was sentenced to life imprisonment, deprivation of political rights for life and confiscation of all his personal property.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commented over the case at a press conference on Thursday. 

Chinese judicial organs handle cases independently in strict accordance with Chinese law and legal procedures, Wang said.  

Drug crimes are serious and have extremely bad effect on society, Wang said. 

The death penalty applies to serious drug-related crimes to deter such crimes, he stressed. 

Wang said Chinese law stipulates that anyone who commits a crime shall be equally subject to the law, noting that Chinese judicial organs handle criminals of different nationalities all according to the law. 

"I don't see how the case [Xu's case] will affect China-Canada relations," Wang said, in response to groundless criticism overseas over China's recent death penalty cases and concern over the cases' effect on China-Canada ties. 

In October 2016, Xu purchased the raw materials and tools for drug making, and worked with Wen to make ketamine in Wen's residence and stored the drugs in Xu's residence in Haizhu district, Guangzhou.

Police officers seized 120.56 kilograms of ketamine at the above-mentioned residences.

This is not the first drug case involving Canadians in China.

In January 2019, Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg was sentenced to death by the Dalian Intermediate People's Court for smuggling more than 222 kilograms of meth.

In April 2019, a Chinese national and a Canadian were handed death sentences by Jiangmen Intermediate People's Court in South China's Guangdong Province for selling and producing drugs in a large cross-border case that also resulted in various sentences for US and Mexican nationals.

In July 2019, police in East China's Shandong Province busted a drug ring involving foreign students, including a Canadian.