Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Wednesday that China has executed four Canadians in recent months.

The minister said all four were “dual citizens” and were all “facing charges linked to criminal activities according to China, linked to drugs.”

“This is an issue that I’ve been following very, very closely, personally, for months, and I’ve asked personally also (for) leniency,” Joly said, adding former prime minister Justin Trudeau also urged China not to execute the Canadians.

China’s embassy in Ottawa confirmed Wednesday that Beijing executed Canadian citizens earlier this year. The embassy told the Associated Press that China does not recognize dual citizenship.

“The facts of the crimes committed by the Canadian nationals involved in the cases are clear, and the evidence is solid and sufficient,” the embassy said in a media statement Wednesday.

“The Chinese judicial authorities have handled the cases in strict accordance with the law, and have fully guaranteed the rights and interests of the Canadian nationals concerned.”

Global Affairs Canada confirmed in a media statement those executed did not include Abbotsford, B.C. native Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who was sentenced to death for drug smuggling by a Chinese court in 2019.

“Canada strongly condemns China’s use of the death penalty, which is irreversible and inconsistent with basic human dignity,” the department wrote. “Canada repeatedly called for clemency for these individuals at the senior-most levels.”

In its statement, the Chinese embassy said Beijing has a “zero tolerance” approach to drug crime.

Beijing said that Canada should “respect the rule of law and China’s judicial sovereignty” and “stop making irresponsible remarks.”

The Globe and Mail first reported on the executions Wednesday morning.

China is believed to execute more prisoners each year than the rest of the world combined — the total is a state secret. China’s executions are typically carried out by gunshot, although lethal injections have been introduced in recent years.

“China is sending us a message that we have to take steps if we want to see an improvement in the relationship,” said former Canadian ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques.

Ottawa has had rocky relations with Beijing since late 2018, when Canada detained a high-profile Chinese executive at the request of the U.S., leading to the detainment of two Canadian citizens in China and various trade disruptions.

The federal government has called China “an increasingly disruptive global power” with “interests and values that increasingly depart from ours.” Beijing has said Canada needs to have “correct cognition” and focus on common goals instead of pointing to differences.

Amnesty International condemned the executions and noted that China executed thousands of people in 2023.

“These shocking and inhumane executions of Canadian citizens by Chinese authorities should be a wake-up call for Canada,” the group’s head for English-speaking Canada, Ketty Nivyabandi, wrote in a media statement.

Michael Kovrig, who was detained in China for more than 1,000 days, reacted to the news by saying that China’s justice system “is highly politicized;” virtually all suspects in it end up convicted and authorities coerce confessions.

“In cases of foreign citizens, China’s government will very likely weigh the international political implications when sentencing and punishing them,” Kovrig wrote, adding that he was responding in a personal capacity and not as an analyst.

“This move makes it painfully clear that China’s government is not sincerely interested in improving bilateral relations. It expects that any progress in the relationship must come entirely on its own terms.”