China says Canadian citizen detained for drug offences

Reuters
Updated
This Dec. 5, 2017, photo shows flags of Canada and China prior to a meeting of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. (Fred Dufour/Pool Photo via AP)
This Dec. 5, 2017, photo shows flags of Canada and China prior to a meeting of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. (Fred Dufour/Pool Photo via AP)

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have detained a Canadian citizen in relation with a drugs case involving students, China's foreign ministry said on Monday, an incident that comes amid a deep chill in relations between the two countries.

Canada's government said on the weekend that a Canadian citizen had been detained in the Chinese city of Yantai in the eastern province of Shandong, though did not provide details.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that Shandong police had recently discovered a case of foreign students being involved with drugs, one of whom was Canadian.

The case was being processed, he added, without elaborating.

The issue was nothing to do with another drugs case involving foreigners in Jiangsu province, Geng said.Â

The British embassy said last week that four British citizens had been arrested in Jiangsu.

Relations between China and Canada nosedived last December after police in the city of Vancouver detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies Co, on a U.S. arrest warrant. Beijing is demanding her return.

After Meng's arrest, China detained two Canadians, accusing them of involvement in stealing state secrets.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)