A Chinese court ordered the death penalty for a Canadian national in the latest example of how deeply ensnared Canada has become in a battle between the U.S. and Beijing over the detention of a prominent Huawei Technologies Co. executive.

Canadian Robert Schellenberg was convicted of taking part in methamphetamine smuggling and sentenced to death in a one-day proceeding just days after the court announced he would be retried. Two months earlier, the same court sentenced Mr. Schellenberg to 15 years in prison for the same offense, but this time around prosecutors charged him with being a key figure, not just an accessory, in an international drug-smuggling ring.

The 36-year-old, who was arrested more than four years ago, has maintained his innocence throughout. On Monday he stood impassively when the judge delivered the sentence.

Western legal experts have called the trial an attempt by China to pressure Canada over the arrest, at U.S. request, of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer and daughter of the founder of Huawei Technologies Co., the world’s biggest telecommunications networking-gear maker and an influential Chinese national champion.

“We are a bit like the meat in a sandwich right now,” said Peter MacKay, Canada’s former foreign minister and now a partner at law firm Baker McKenzie. He added his main concern is Chinese officials using the detention and sentencing of Canadian citizens to warn other nations about aligning with the U.S. in its cold-war approach against Beijing. “They wouldn’t dream of doing this [to] the U.S.,” he said.