France Condemns China’s Execution of French National Over Drug Conviction
The French government expressed shock over Beijing’s execution of a French citizen. The French national was convicted on drug-related charges and had served over 20 years in a Chinese prison.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on Saturday (April 4) on its official website, announcing the execution of 62-year-old French citizen Chan Thao Phoumy by the Chinese authorities. He was sentenced to death in 2010 for drug trafficking.
According to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the French government had previously requested clemency from the Chinese side, including “pardoning our compatriot on humanitarian grounds.”
The Chinese Embassy in France issued a statement on Sunday (April 5) defending China’s severe punishment, emphasizing that the death penalty was imposed for drug crimes and that defendants of different nationalities were treated equally.
French media outlets, including Le Monde and Agence France-Presse (AFP), pointed out that Chan Thao Phoumy was a French citizen born in Laos. However, Chinese state media claimed his birthplace was the major southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. At present, The Epoch Times is unable to immediately verify his actual birthplace.
In early 2005, Chan Thao Phoumy was arrested along with dozens of Chinese citizens on charges of purchasing, transporting, and selling large quantities of drugs to China from Southeast Asia.
Initially, in 2007, Chan Thao Phoumy was sentenced to life imprisonment for charges of smuggling and trafficking drugs. As reported by Chinese state media at the time, three years later, an intermediate court in Guangzhou ordered a retrial based on new evidence and added a “drug manufacturing charge.”
According to Chinese state media, in August 2010, Chan Thao Phoumy was sentenced to death. Authorities accused him of manufacturing synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine from precursor chemicals between 1999 and 2003, and other defendants received the same punishment.
In its statement on April 4, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out that Chan Thao Phoumy’s defense team was prohibited from attending the final court hearing, a move deemed regrettable and a violation of the individual’s rights.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated its opposition to the use of the death penalty “in any place, under any circumstances,” and called for the “comprehensive abolition of the death penalty.”
This is not the first time that China has executed foreign nationals. In early 2025, Chinese authorities executed four Canadian citizens convicted on drug charges, prompting strong criticism from Ottawa.
Global Affairs Canada stated to The Epoch Times at the time: “Canada strongly condemns China’s use of the death penalty. The death penalty is irreversible and violates basic human dignity.”
Defense lawyers noted that China’s Supreme People’s Court exceptionally overturned the death sentence of a Canadian citizen in February on drug-related charges. The reversal in the case of Robert Lloyd Schellenberg coincided with a visit to Beijing by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and a meeting with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping shortly thereafter.
Schellenberg was originally sentenced to 15 years in prison for drug trafficking in 2018 but was re-sentenced to death by Chinese authorities at the end of 2018 following Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in response to a U.S. extradition request. This move by Beijing, along with the arrests of two other Canadians, was condemned by governments worldwide as “hostage diplomacy.”
It is widely believed that the number of people executed annually by the Chinese authorities is the highest in the world. In a 2024 report, Amnesty International referred to the Chinese authorities as the “world’s top executioner.”
However, due to Beijing’s classification of related information as state secrets, the exact number of executions remains unknown to this day.