CHINA “inhumanely” executed four Canadian citizens on drugs smuggling charges earlier this year, it has been revealed.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said that all four had been dual citizens, adding that Ottawa would ask for leniency for other Canadians facing the same horrific fate.

She said: “There are four Canadians that have been executed and therefore we are strongly condemning what happened.”

Joly added that all four had been convicted on drug charges.

The Canadian Foreign Ministry also revealed that Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian man sentenced to death in 2019 for drug smuggling, had been spared from execution.

Mr Schellenberg has always proclaimed his innocence insisting he came to China as a “tourist.”

At the time of his sentencing, experts said that Schellenberg was being used as a political pawn in a bigger feud between China, Canada and the US.

Ties between the nations have been icy since 2018 when Meng Wanzhou, Chief Financial Officer of Chinese telecoms firm Huawei, was detained in Vancouver at Washington’s request.

Shortly after, China arrested two Canadians in what appeared to be an act of revenge.

Meng and the Canadian duo were released in 2021.

China said on Thursday it acted “in accordance with the law” and suggested the Canadians had been convicted over narcotics offences, saying “combating drug crimes is the common responsibility of all countries”.

“China is a country under the rule of law,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

She added that Beijing “treats defendants of different nationalities equally without discrimination” and “handles cases fairly in strict accordance with the law.”

China also “protects the legitimate rights of the parties concerned as well as the consular rights of the Canadian side, in accordance with the law”, Mao claims.

Canada’s Joly said she and former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked China for leniency.

China classifies death penalty statistics as a state secret, although rights groups believe thousands of people are heinously executed in the country every year.

Beijing said this week a former Chinese engineer had recently been sentenced to death for leaking state secrets to a foreign power.

A mere few weeks ago, Beijing announced tariffs on more than $2.6 billion worth of Canadian agricultural and food products.

This was in brutal retaliation against levies Ottawa slapped on Chinese electric vehicles and steel and aluminium products last year.

Combating drug-related offences is a shared responsibility of all countries, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday, urging Canada to “respect the spirit of the rule of law and stop interfering in China’s judicial sovereignty”.

Mao added that China treats those accused equally regardless of nationalities, handles their cases fairly and strictly, while safeguarding their rights.

In a statement, the Chinese embassy in Ottawa said Canada was making irresponsible remarks.

“China always imposed severe penalties on drug-related crimes and maintains a ‘zero tolerance’ attitude towards the drug problem,” it said, without confirming that any executions had taken place.