Prisoner in Vancouver: Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou awaits her fate in splendour

Meng Wanzhou steps out of her US$4.2 million mansion, a GPS monitor strapped to her ankle, and slips into a chauffeured black SUV. Then she is off, largely free to roam the shops and restaurants within 100 square miles of Vancouver until her 11pm curfew.

So goes another day of house arrest for Meng, chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies and daughter of the billionaire founder of China’s biggest telecom provider. It is, by all appearances, a comfortable life for someone at the centre of a complex power game.

Meng’s arrest at the behest of the US – which wants to extradite her on grounds she tricked banks into potentially violating Iran sanctions – has sparked an unprecedented diplomatic row. Nine days after her December 1 arrest during a stop over in Vancouver, China detained two Canadians on national security grounds. And this week, a China court imposed a death sentence, following a one-day trial, on a Canadian found guilty of drug smuggling.

How Meng’s case will be resolved remains unclear, though she has become an object of fascination in a city where her family owns two homes and where she spent down time when she was not running Huawei’s finances. Tourists stop by to take selfies outside her home near a 2,000-acre park overlooking the Pacific Ocean, where she is ensconced with her husband and daughter.

Meng’s bail terms include the GPS monitor, an 11pm to 6am curfew, and 24-hour surveillance by a private security firm, Lions Gate Risk Management Group. Their job is to ensure she does not violate the conditions of her release. She pays the hefty bill for that monitoring, which includes two guards at a time and a driver.