Huawei CFO house arrest contrasts with Canadians detained in China

TORONTO, May 20 (Reuters): Huawei Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Meng Wanzhou described her house arrest in Vancouver as "restricted to a limited space" even as she spent her past six months in a six-bedroom, multi-million dollar Canadian home.

Meng (47), has access to top lawyers, moves around relatively freely in Vancouver, albeit with restrictions, and her comments drew immediate comparison between her life in house arrest versus the two Canadians detained in solitary confinement in China for a similar length of time.

Daughter of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's billionaire founder, Ren Zhengfei, Meng was arrested at Vancouver's airport in December on a US warrant and is fighting extradition on charges that she conspired to defraud global banks about Huawei's relationship with a company operating in Iran.

Businessman Michael Spavor, who worked with North Korea, and former diplomat Michael Kovrig were picked up separately in December, shortly after Canada arrested Meng. Both were formally arrested earlier this month on state secret charges but it was unclear if they have been moved to another facility where they might get better treatment.

"The difference between the terms of detention of Madame Meng and the two Canadians is going to just jump off the page," said Paul Evans, a professor at the University of British Columbia who specializes in China and Canada relations.

He added that the contrast could anger Canadians who compare Meng's conditions with those of Kovrig and Spavor.

The two Canadians have no access to lawyers or bail, are questioned every morning, afternoon and evening, and are held in a room where the lights are not allowed to be turned off at night, according to Canadian diplomats. China has said only that the legal rights of the two men are being fully guaranteed.

Meanwhile, Meng lived in her C$5.6 million ($4.2 million) home in Vancouver, which has six bedrooms and five bathrooms, after posting a C$10 million bail in December.

"Despite being physically restricted to a very limited space during my time in Vancouver, my inner self has never felt so colorful and vast," Meng wrote in the letter published last Monday on the Xinsheng Community, an internal forum for the 188,000 Huawei employees.