Ottawa told to get tougher on China

• On the same day another Canadian was sentenced to death on drug charges in China, MPS were warned Canada must adopt a tougher stance with the Asian nation.

The Guangzhou Municipal Intermediate Court announced Canadian

Xu Weihong’s penalty on Thursday and said an alleged accomplice, Wen Guanxiong, had been given a life sentence.

The brief court statement gave no details but local media in the southern Chinese city at the heart of the country’s manufacturing industry said Xu and Wen had gathered ingredients and tools and began making the drug ketamine in October 2016. Police later confiscated more than 120 kilograms of the drug from Xu’s home

“Canada opposes the use of the death penalty in all cases, everywhere,” said Global Affairs Canada spokesman John Babcock.

“Canada has consistently raised our firm opposition to the death penalty with China and will continue to do so.”

He said Canadian diplomats have given Xu consular assistance and were present for the sentencing. Canada is seeking clemency. Xu was arrested two years before Canada detained Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on U. S. extradition charges.

Death sentences are automatically referred to China’s highest court for review and are not rare for cases involving large amounts of drugs.

More than 18 months ago, in apparent retaliation for Meng’s arrest, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor, accusing them of vague national security crimes.

China also handed a death sentence to convicted Canadian drug smuggler Robert Schellenberg in a sudden retrial after he had already been sentenced.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said there was no connection between Xu’s sentencing and current China- Canada relations.

“I would like to stress that China’s judicial authorities handle the relevant case independently in strict accordance with Chinese law and legal procedures,” Wang said at a daily briefing Thursday.

Canada’s former ambassador to China David Mulroney told a parliamentary committee meeting on Thursday that it’s time for a change in Canada’s approach to the country, a change he doesn’t believe the Liberal government is yet willing to make.

“It is not clear that the government has completely given up the fiction that China is our friend,” he said. “This long overdue course correction must be shared with Canadians who would be enormously reassured.”

Mulroney was supposed to appear alongside former ambassadors John Mccallum and Robert Wright, but those two declined the invitation to appear. The committee voted to formally summon them to testify.

In June, a group of high-profile Canadians wrote a letter calling for a prisoner exchange with Meng to get Spavor and Kovrig back, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promptly rejected. Mulroney said that letter was concerning.

“It worries me when I see people who are thought leaders seem to lack the sense of energy to defend our national interests,” he said.

He said he believes prominent people, former politicians and government officials, doing businesses with China should have to be upfront about any business ties.

“If you choose to go to work for China or another country, you can do that, but you have to be transparent.”

Mulroney argued for Canada to stand with allies to pressure China together. He said China can punish one country economically, but can’t do that to a coalition of countries standing together.

“The reality is that Canada has what China needs,” he said. “China needs the products that Canada, Australia and the United States produce.”