China Upholds Retaliatory Death Sentence Imposed on Canadian Citizen, Escalating Diplomatic Dispute

As China await­ed a deci­sion on whether Canada would extra­dite a top Chinese busi­ness­woman to the U.S. on crim­i­nal charges, a Chinese court upheld a con­tro­ver­sial death sen­tence imposed on a Canadian man, fur­ther esca­lat­ing ten­sions between the two nations.

On August 10, 2021, a Chinese court denied the appeal of Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian nation­al who was sen­tenced to death in China one month after Canadian offi­cials arrest­ed Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer at Chinese tech­nol­o­gy giant Huawei, at the behest of the United States. Canadian offi­cials have deemed the move ​“not a coin­ci­dence” and ​“hostage diplomacy.” 

Both Canadian and U.S. offi­cials have linked Schellenberg’s death sen­tence to the arrest of Meng, who is also the daugh­ter of Huawei’s founder. She was arrest­ed at Vancouver International Airport on December 1, 2018 by Canadian author­i­ties at the request of the U.S. gov­ern­ment, which sought her extra­di­tion to face charges of wire fraud and bank fraud asso­ci­at­ed with alleged vio­la­tions of U.S. trade sanc­tions against Iran. Schellenberg was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to 15 years impris­on­ment in November 2018 on charges of smug­gling metham­phet­a­mine. Shortly after Meng’s arrest, a Chinese court grant­ed pros­e­cu­tors’ appeal of Schellenberg’s ini­tial con­vic­tion and after a one-day retri­al in January 2019, he was sen­tenced to death. As Meng’s extra­di­tion hear­ings in Canada entered their final phase in ear­ly August 2021, the Higher People’s Court of Liaoning Province in north­east China denied Schellenberg’s appeal and for­ward­ed the case to the Chinese supreme court for final review.

Canada’s ambas­sador to Beijing, Dominic Barton, ​“condemn[ed] the ver­dict in the strongest pos­si­ble terms.” Characterizing Schellenberg’s retri­al and sen­tence as ​“arbi­trary,” he said “[w]e … call on China to grant Robert clemency.”

Canadian offi­cials also sug­gest­ed that two oth­er Canadian cit­i­zens were arrest­ed and detained in retal­i­a­tion for Meng’s arrest. Days after Meng was tak­en into cus­tody, Chinese author­i­ties detained Canadian entre­pre­neur Michael Spavor and for­mer Canadian diplo­mat Michael Kovrig, charg­ing them with espi­onage. Both men were tried in March 2021. On August 11, one day after the court reject­ed Schellenberg’s appeal, Spavor was sen­tenced to 11 years in prison. Kovrig is still awaiting sentencing.

When asked whether the cas­es of Schellenberg, Spavor, and Kovrig were linked to Meng’s poten­tial extra­di­tion, Barton said, ​“I don’t think it’s a coin­ci­dence these are hap­pen­ing right now while events are going on in Vancouver.” Barton called Schellenberg’s case ​“part of the geopo­lit­i­cal process.” In two oth­er cas­es in 2019, Canadian cit­i­zens Fan Wei and Xu Weihong were con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death on drug charges. Referring col­lec­tive­ly to the pros­e­cu­tions of the Canadians, David Meale, the top U.S. diplo­mat in China, issued a state­ment say­ing that “[t]hese pro­ceed­ings are a bla­tant attempt to use human beings as bar­gain­ing lever­age. Human beings should nev­er be used as bargaining chips.” 

“Canada strong­ly con­demns China’s deci­sion to uphold the death penal­ty sen­tence,” Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said in a state­ment. ​“We have repeat­ed­ly expressed to China our firm oppo­si­tion to this cru­el and inhu­mane pun­ish­ment.” Barton also called the death penal­ty ​“cru­el and inhu­mane,” adding that Canada is against the death penal­ty in all cas­es ​“every­where in the world.” 

Canadian oppo­si­tion leader Erin O’Toole, head of the Conservative Party of Canada, joined in the crit­i­cism of China’s actions. ​“The use of the death penal­ty is appalling,” he tweet­ed on August 14, ​“but to impose it for polit­i­cal rea­sons is inexcusable.”

In 2018, the edi­tor of the Global Times news­pa­per, a week­ly out­let of the Chinese Communist Party’s People Daily, said that if Meng were extra­dit­ed to the U.S. that ​“China’s revenge will be far worse than detain­ing a Canadian.” On August 19, 2021, the paper released an open let­ter to Ambassador Barton demand­ing Meng’s ​“imme­di­ate and unconditional release.”