China overturns death sentence of Canadian in sign of diplomatic thaw

China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in what has been described as a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as prime minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing. Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014.

Relations between China and Canada deteriorated after the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, which prompted Beijing to detain two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, on espionage charges Ottawa called retaliatory.

In January 2019 a court in north-east China retried Schellenberg and sentenced him to death after deeming his earlier 15-year term for drug trafficking too lenient; Amnesty International said the one-day retrial was a flagrant violation of international law. Schellenberg has denied wrongdoing.

China, north-east China